Chiaroscuro
by Nevermorexxx
Summary: A new campaign for Funtom Modelling agency is launching this winter. However, a surprise addition to the campaign has made himself an enemy. An enemy that has got Sebastian Michaelis feeling things he's never felt before. What will he do as he is confronted with the sudden contrast in darkness to light, the spotlight that keeps drawing his eyes to that contemptuous green eyed man?
1. I

Claude honked the horn of his brand new Audi in rapid succession.

It was nearing early afternoon now and he sucked his teeth in annoyance as he glanced at the time once again.

Seventeen minutes. That's how long he had been waiting for Sebastian to exit his apartment and walk down to his car. He had been begged and promised all sorts of things that couldn't possibly be delivered to agree to carpool. And by carpooling he of course meant hitching a ride like a pestering flea.

The whole reason Claude had refused in the first place was because of this exact reason. Sebastian was late to everything, late for everything and late on everything. He had no concept of time and had remained the same for all seventeen years they had known each other.

Seventeen minutes... oh- now it was eighteen.

Claude grunted and adjusted in his seat. He would wait for another two minutes and then he was leaving. He had prepared for this, he had even told Sebastian the meeting was at noon when it was actually eleven thirty. Still he wanted to be on time or at least early himself and the studio they were to meet in was easily half an hour away. Not to mention the terrible Los Angeles traffic.

Two minutes went by quickly as Claude sat, periodically pressing down on the horn to let Sebastian know he was growing tired of waiting. He was busying himself by wondering what exactly had compelled him to believe that Sebastian could be on time for anything and how exactly he kept falling for the same lame tricks.

When three minutes had passed, Claude had decided to wait an extra minute out of the stupid belief that he was being kind and doing his friend a favor, he put his car in drive and pulled out of the parking space he was waiting in.

"Hey! Wait!" Claude scowled and looked in his rearview mirror. Sebastian was there, holding on to the back of his car as though he could stop it from moving with his hands. While Claude debated driving off anyways and wondering if he could manage to run over Sebastian's foot in the process, the man quickly ran to the side of the car and hopped in.

"You said you'd carpool with me!" Sebastian snapped, hastily buckling his seat belt as the taller man -by an inch!- immediately began driving again.

"And you said you weren't going to be late. I guess we're both liars."

"I'm not late, Claude!" Sebastian persisted as the car turned onto the street. "You're just early! You think I didn't know what time the actual meeting was?" Claude merely grunted in response. He couldn't really argue that after all, he _was_ early.

"See? You can't even say anything." Sebastian rummaged around the car, looking in the door pocket and opening the glove compartment.

"Hey, do you have a lighter in here? Mine ran out of fluid." Claude frowned.

"You're not smoking in my brand new car, you idiot." Sebastian slumped in his seat.

"Aww, c'mon Claude. Can't I just open the window?"

"No." Claude snapped. Sebastian groaned. He really needed a smoke this morning. And by the looks of the traffic in front of them he likely wouldn't have time when they got there. He sighed, reclining in his seat.

They sat in comfortable silence for awhile, bothered by nothing but the muted sounds of the traffic around them. The two had were close friends although you would sooner think them enemies. Claude had a demeanor that made it seem as though he hated everyone and Sebastian took far too much pleasure in making those around him uncomfortable. Claude wasn't one for compliments so he treated those he approved of with careful indifference while he was blunt and direct with those he disliked. Sebastian was fond of Claude in that regard. He wasn't nosy, wasn't loud, and if he didn't like something you did he wouldn't judge you for it but he would certainly let you know.

And as far as what kept Claude coming back to Sebastian and believing his idiotic lies time after time… he really couldn't say. They had gravitated towards one another and it didn't need any deeper explanation than that.

"How's the misses doing?" Sebastian asked after a while. Claude adjusted and let out a small sigh.

"We're not married yet."

"Alright then how's the _fiancée_? You do realize you're going to have to start calling her your wife soon?" Sebastian teased, chuckling. Not many things made Claude as uncomfortable as talking about his love life, something Sebastian had managed to learn after a few years.

"Yes, I realize that and I will when the time comes." Claude gently pressed his foot on the brake as the light ahead of them changed from yellow to red. They weren't yet at the freeway where the majority of traffic would be waiting for them.

He glanced over to Sebastian as he spoke.

"Hannah is fine. She's got the new job at the business center as the receptionist. She likes it well enough, but I think she's just happy she can funnel a bit more funds into the wedding." Sebastian snickered internally. Claude always spoke about their wedding as if it were something that didn't involve him. He had a good laugh to himself after he had accepted Claude's bumbling request of him to be the best man.

"And how does that make Claude feel?" Sebastian asked, turning to Claude with the concerned face and voice of a well paid therapist.

"Shut up, Sebastian."Claude sighed, pressing down on the gas as the light had turned now from red to green. Sebastian acquiesced, snickering out loud and focusing his attention on the passing scenery.

After a few moments they had entered the freeway. Unsurprisingly met with a backup of traffic after what looked like a bad accident. Typical of Californian highways.

"So, what do you think Vincent's got in store for us?" Sebastian asked after a long stretch of silence. Claude hated driving with any type of music, finding it distracting and headache inducing so Sebastian was forced to fill the silence with his voice.

"Well, there must be some reason he's grouping the four of us together. We haven't worked with Alois and Ciel in a long while." Sebastian made a noise in the back of his throat. That wasn't the response he was fishing for.

"I mean with all the secrecy. If this _special guest_ he's calling in is such a renowned model we probably know him."

"He didn't say it was a he." Claude corrected.

Sebastian frowned.

"But it has to be doesn't it? Vincent is working with both Angelina and Nina and neither of them specialize in women's fashion." Sebastian took a moment to make a joke. "If their wardrobe is anything to go by. Angelina literally wears nothing but red and Nina dresses like she was born in the 19th century."

Claude let out a snort at that. "I suppose. Vincent is the type to get a thrill out of a good surprise so there's really no telling."

Sebastian considered this.

"Ah, that's true. Remember what he did for Diedrich's birthday?"

"How could I even begin to forget?" Claude said, chuckling under his breath.

"The poor guy. How do you get a stripper pole installed in your own house without knowing about it?"

"He's too busy yelling at Vincent to notice much of anything else." Claude quipped.

They had gotten past the accident now and the cars were thinning out allowing them to drive at a regular pace once again.

"True. You can't blame Vincent for trying to set him up with a girl who knows what she's doing. Don't really see what the point in inviting all of us was, though." Sebastian turned his head back to Claude at the exact time Claude had glanced at him, a strange look on his face.

"What?" Sebastian asked, puzzled.

"Diedrich is gay, Sebastian."

"What? _Really_?" Sebastian's eyes had widened to saucers and he was genuinely surprised.

"You really don't notice anything if it doesn't concern you sometimes." Claude sighed.

"What? _What is that supposed to mean_? How did _you_ know?"

"The whole birthday thing was a prank. That's why we were invited. Vincent knows Diedrich has feelings for him so he was joking. But Diedrich took it as an outright rejection and that's why we were all kicked out. It seems that they've made up now, though." Sebastian was completely shocked. How had he not known about that, he wondered, when Claude was talking about it like it was common knowledge.

"Diedrich is gay?" He wondered aloud. Claude glanced at his friend with a tired look and sighed in annoyance.

"Please don't tell me that's the only part you heard." Sebastian didn't answer, trying to recall in his mind anything that seemed off or peculiar about Vincent's assistant.

"This is why I don't bother telling you things." Claude sighed, refocusing his attention on the highway in front of him.

...

The two arrived at the studio with less than seconds to spare. Sebastian definitely would not have time to smoke a cigarette. Claude pulled swiftly into an open parking space and was out of the car before it completely pulled to a stop. He absolutely hated being late.

Sebastian got out of the car slowly, his legs feeling cramped from being in the car for so long.

"The studio" was actually just the headquarters of the Funtom Modelling agency. The agency was owned by Vincent Phantomhive himself who conducted his business peculiarly. He contracted several models, maintaining about ten at all times, and worked exclusively with designers- not companies. The models contracted under the Funtom name were hand picked by the designers to model and advertise their products. Vincent put together runway shows and publicity events to get the product circulating and hopefully a company specializing in creating said product would make an offer. The details were a bit beyond Sebastian's level of comprehension but he could at least understand that much.

Being that Funtom's main designers were both women who preferred to create men's products and fashions the majority of the models were therefore male. Claude and Sebastian had both been acquaintances with Vincent when he decided to venture into modelling and began his own unique company and were looking for well paying jobs. Vincent had offered them their own choice for the length of their contract and had promised that if the product was successful they would be handsomely rewarded for their efforts. Diedrich, who was also dragged into the business, had skill with a camera and had called the both of them naturals who easily took to the pace and skill required of a photoshoot and the first product they had advertised, a small line of men's suits, had gone much better than anticipated. It wasn't easy money and they often had to pull many long hours during the high points of a project but when not working on a project they had no obligations to work, as there really wasn't any work to be had. Claude picked up odd modelling jobs here and there, mainly projects that specifically needed his refined and regal stature and managed to do well for himself. Sebastian on the other hand, realized very early into his modelling career that he had a special talent for underwear modelling. He stayed busy, racking up quite the impressive portfolio, and could hardly keep up with the number of offers coming in for him to join their modelling company.

Sebastian jogged a bit to catch up to the fast moving Claude and just barely managed to get into the studio before the door slammed in his face. He followed Claude down a hallway that lead to Vincent's office, where the majority of the product introductions were held. Vincent would introduce the project, the designer, reiterate who was working on the project, and show a few pieces of the project to give an idea of what it was, then let everyone know the upcoming dates so schedules could be adjusted.

Claude knocked on the door, it wasn't usually locked but Claude just had a thing for formalities.

A few seconds went by and suddenly the door was opened and a blonde nearly flew out, latching on to Claude.

"Oh, Claude isn't it great that we get to work together again?! It's been such a long time! You've been avoiding me, you asshole- I can tell!" Claude frowned and adjusted his glasses, the blonde had nearly knocked him over with the sheer force he had been hit with.

"Alois. Please get off of me." Claude's tone had changed now, he held nothing but distaste for the blonde and it was obvious to anyone that observed Claude's face when the blonde was in the room.

The blonde obliged, having annoyed Claude enough to know when he was close to becoming actually angry. Alois looked over to where Sebastian stood, an amused smirk on his face.

"Oh. You're here too, Sebastian."

Alois Trancy was a boy on the shorter side, having icy blue eyes and a superb talent for modelling. Unfortunately, his personality was awful. His first priority in life was seducing anything with legs and a decent face. And he refused to give up if someone was being stubborn. As he honestly believed Claude to be. He had openly hit on Claude multiple times and was clearly rejected each time, after news of his engagement the blonde had slacked off in his pursuit slightly but was still just as sincere in his advances. He had no shame whatsoever, and had hit on almost everyone at the studio. With the exception of Sebastian, of whom he seemed to hold intense indifference toward. Sebastian didn't really care nor was he offended, Alois Trancy was insufferable and he was glad he didn't have to deal with any of it.

Sebastian raised his eyebrows in acknowledgment of the blonde and stepped around him to enter the room. Alois would likely talk Claude's ear off until Vincent was ready to present the project and he had no desire to listen to blonde's ramblings.

His eyes surveyed the room for any surprising faces but was disappointed to only see a few familiar faces.

Vincent was leaning over a computer with Nina and Angelina hovering around him, looking to be engaged in a heated discussion with Nina and Angelina commenting every now and then. Vincent's son Ciel was sat on the plush loveseat off to the side of the room with his perky and overbearing girlfriend, Elizabeth. Who just so happened to be one of the two female models employed at Funtom. The other was a young girl around the same age who went by Freckles although everyone called her doll after they saw how much a little makeup changed her tomboyish appearance. Also in the room was Diedrich, who was bent over an open manilla folder with a spread of photos in front of him. Sebastian paused and observed him for a moment. What about him was gay? He was an affluent man, who seemed to work hard for everything he had despite being raised with money just like Vincent. He had a bad temper especially when conversing with Vincent and in general seemed like a very prudent, strict man. So, what on earth was it that made him look at Vincent in that way? Truth be told, both Vincent and Diedrich were very good looking men, handsome enough to be models themselves although Vincent lacked the height. Even still Sebastian couldn't even begin to look at either of them romantically, just the thought of seeing either of them naked sent an unpleasant chill down his spine. He shook the feeling off and walked to where Ciel was sitting.

"Afternoon." Sebastian greeted as he stood in front of the couple. They looked up at him, Elizabeth with a wide smile on her face and a healthy blush across her cheeks and Ciel looked surprised.

"Hi, Sebastian!" Elizabeth chirped and Sebastian sent a small smile her way.

"I'm surprised you're only," Ciel took a moment to look at his watch. "7 minutes late." Sebastian smirked.

Ciel was an interesting kid. He had just graduated from high school and had been pulled into modelling at the request of his father and his girlfriend. He wasn't bad at it but it was obvious he wasn't nearly as enthusiastic about it as others around him. Sebastian had been partnered with him once before, as had Claude, and had gotten the opportunity to get the know him better. He had a rather stoic personality and a morbid sense of humor but Sebastian could appreciate both and they often had long talks about how idiotic the people around them were.

"Well if Claude hadn't been rushing me I could have been fashionably late by thirty minutes." Sebastian responded. Ciel scoffed in disbelief.

"You mean you actually convinced him to drive you here?"

"He couldn't resist my amazing persuasion skills." Sebastian bantered, a mischievous glint in his eye. Ciel looked revolted.

"Claude's an idiot. Don't ever ask _me_ to drive you anywhere."

"Ciel, that's mean!" Elizabeth gasped, smacking his shoulder. Ciel discreetly rolled his eyes towards Sebastian.

"You wouldn't offer to drive him anywhere either. He's late to everything." Elizabeth pouted.

"I was talking about what you said about Claude! They're good friends, of course Claude would be nice and pick him up knowing that he's late to everything!" Ciel grimaced.

"Doesn't make him any less of an idiot." He grumbled. Elizabeth frowned, becoming upset.

"So if I was always running late to everything you wouldn't pick me up?" She challenged.

Sebastian, who had been observing their exchange, raised his eyebrows. He realized that Ciel had just dug his own grave and ignored the younger boy's pleading look as he swiftly exited the conversation. He ventured over to where Vincent was, in case he hadn't noticed Sebastian's arrival.

"So, where's this mysterious model at, Vincent?" He asked as he approached the desk. Vincent looked up from the computer and grinned at Sebastian.

"Ah, Sebastian. I wasn't expecting you for at least another twenty minutes."

"Yeah, well, Claude was rushing me." Vincent laughed out loud, familiar with the antics of the two.

"I see, I see. Anyways he'll be arriving later on after I've presented the project most likely."

"So it _is_ a he!" Sebastian cried, ecstatic that his guess had been correct. Vincent raised an eyebrow and humored him.

"What made you think it was? I'm sure I didn't specify gender until just now." Sebastian gestured to the two women behind him, silently watching their exchange.

"How could it not be a he if the two of them are working on a project? Not to mention girls usually aren't in group projects."

"Well if it were up to _me_ ," Nina interjected, fierce as usual. "Then he wouldn't be involved in this project at all." She looked disapprovingly at Sebastian.

"And neither would you nor Claude. You don't fit the look I'm trying to achieve." Sebastian rolled his eyes.

"Yes, you're a pedofile. I get it. You're not interested in _men_." Nina's face burned bright red with anger and made a move as if she was going to slap Sebastian across the face but Vincent had stood up suddenly and gotten hold of her wrist.

"Sebastian, behave yourself _please_." He said, giving him a warning look. Nina huffed and took a step backwards, settling for glaring harshly.

"In any event, I completely disagree." Angelina spoke up.

How the two women ever managed to work together on anything surprised Sebastian. Nin Hopkins was a designer and spent many hours of her day drawing men's fashion. Well, _boy's_ fashion. Angelina Dalles was Vincent's sister in law and an excellent seamstress with a very steady hand. She reviewed a designer's sketches, made changes, and put together a finished product. Whenever the two worked together were when group projects were necessary. The two couldn't come to an agreement on whether the clothes should be made for young men or older taller men so Vincent, the mediator in those situations, picked models that would represent both ideas.

"I think _he_ , not you Sebastian, shows the versatility of the clothing the best. He's quite a beautiful man so it would show not only that the clothes can look good on any age group but also that it does not require masculinity." Sebastian frowned, so the _he_ they were talking about wasn't very young? And…

"What do you mean _beautiful_?" Sebastian asked, completely perplexed. Men were not called beautiful. They were called handsome, hot, sexy, and in the worst case _cute_. But never _beautiful_. Angelina smiled slightly, looking as though she was holding back a laugh and her cheeks warmed slightly.

"You'll see when he gets here. There's really no other word to describe him." Sebastian looked over to Vincent who was nodding his head in agreement.

"Even I can say the same. But that's enough for now, I think we ought to get into the presentation." He stood up and pressed something on his computer so that the screen would come out of his projector.

"Alright everyone, let's get started." He announced. Sebastian turned and located Claude, who had managed to escape from Alois.

"So it was a he." He informed, standing next to the taller man.

"Oh? Did Vincent tell you who it was?" Sebastian shook his head.

"No. But they gave me a vague description. A _weird_ description. So I still have no idea what to expect." Claude hummed in thought.

"Well, I guess we'll see soon. I'm just hoping he's easier to work with then some of the other people in our group." Their attention turned back to Vincent as he began speaking again.

"Afternoon, everyone." He greeted, answered back with similar greetings.

"As you well know, the four of you will be participating in a group project designed by Nina and Angelina. The product will be winter clothing for the quickly approaching winter season. Of course, we're a bit behind on that bandwagon seeing as we're already into November but nonetheless we're expecting the product to do well and be as marketable as possible. The four of you were handpicked because we feel that you will deliver exactly what needs to be given for the clothing line- a mixture of male body types, sizes and styles that will show the versatility of the clothing." Vincent caught Sebastian's eye as he paused for effect and looked around the room.

"And, of course, we believe the special guest we've called in for the season will tie all of the different styles together and create the perfect vision of versatility for the line. I don't usually call in models that aren't contracted to us but he was willing and I believe there's no one that suits this quintet any better. Now," the screen behind him began to flip through images of the clothing and certain dates flashed on the screen. "The project will begin in a few weeks time, the first week of December and will stretch until early to mid March. Once again, we are a bit behind schedule so the scheduling may be a bit more demanding. But, with any luck we'll be launching a full line around this time next year. Every one of you has worked on a project before, so you all are aware of how we do things. The first few weeks will be fittings and singular shots, working our way up to group shots and fashion shows. At the height of the project we'll be doing several publicity events which may include interviews, magazine shoots, and whatever else may come up as an opportunity. Diedrich has been so kind as to take the time to print each of you an individual schedule so please see him for yours before you leave this afternoon and don't hesitate to tell me if there's a conflict in schedule with a _prior_ engagement you have. I do realize that some of you carry several different modelling projects at a-" He was interrupted by a firm and steady knock at the door. Everyone's attention turned towards it in curiosity.

"-time. And that must be him." Vincent announced hurrying over to the door before anyone else could open it. Sebastian and Claude, standing closest to the door heard a snippet of conversation and a jovial laugh as Vincent opened and shut the door behind him. The room was silent as everyone waited for the new model to be introduced. Nina was completely uninterested and was clicking around on Vincent's computer, but even Diedrich had stopped what he was doing and turned his attention to the door.

A few moments went by but suddenly the door was opened again and Vincent came walking in with the new model in tow.

Long, silky strands of silver hair stretched from his head down to his upper thigh. It was intricately braided on one side of his head, silver plaits falling majestically underneath the intricate updo. Skin white and creamy like porcelain, without a single blemish. He was dressed smartly, wearing a black deeply cut v-neck sweater with a bone white button up underneath and slate colored pants.

As they passed, Sebastian could only see the man's silky bangs that covered the majority of his face. A shocked silence had stolen everyone's breath and they continued to hold it as the two walked back over to Vincent's desk. The man introduced himself quietly to Angelina who was blushing like a madwoman and Nina whose face was kept passive though it was obvious that even she was impressed. When he turned around to face everyone, arm slung around Vincent's shoulders and hair snaking down the shorter man's body, Sebastian could understand the reaction.

The man scanned the room quickly, familiarizing himself with the faces of the people he'd be working with for the next four months. Sebastian could see all of his face now, and his lungs seemed to lodge themselves painfully in his throat. The man had green eyes like glowing emeralds infused with gold and his gaze seemed to pierce through your eyes and straight into your mind, making you want to instinctively look away from the intensity seeded there. He was smirking distinctly, though it seemed less of a conscious effort and more so the expression his face naturally made.

Vincent, seemingly happy that his surprise had stunned everyone into silence, spoke up with a wide smile.

"Everyone, this is Adrian Crevan. He's an English model from London, England and an old friend of mine." People had begun muttering now, slowly falling out of their initial shock.

"Nice to meet you all, _hee hee_." The man, Adrian, greeted with a heavy English accent and mischievous giggle. He made eye contact with Sebastian once again, who could not turn his eyes from the incredibly interesting person in front of him. He understood now, what Angelina meant by saying _beautiful_ was the only word that described him.

The green eyed man held eye contact for a moment, his lips lifting up in an amused smirk, before his gaze settled back on Vincent who had begun to speak once again.

* * *

 ** _Hi! Thank you for reading this first chapter. This story was originally supposed to be somewhat of a crack fic but as you can see it didn't end up being that. Obviously this story is yaoi malexmale and will have some content in that regard- don't like, why read? I hope you enjoyed! If you did please let me know it would mean the world to me I've been pouring my blood, sweat, and tears into this story almost everyday for the past month so I hope it shows. I have a lot planned for this story. It'll be around 10 chapters with probably sporadic updates although it will 100% be completed. Special shoutout to Sarah over in Disqus who somehow put this story idea in my head and made it consume my entire life. I'm an avid reader of the Kuroshitsuji manga so if you happen to see Kuria in the comments that's me! See you guys next time :)_**


	2. II

"And that covers about everything. If you have any questions feel free to ask me, Nina, or Angelina." Vincent concluded. He left the presentation running and turned back to the two women standing beside him. Adrian, who was still leaning on him, followed his movements and engaged in conversation with the three of them.

Sebastian felt an unpleasant feeling stirring in his stomach. A heavy, nauseating feeling as he looked at Vincent and the overly affectionate man next to him.

He found his face curling up in disgust at the display. What professional was that friendly with their boss let alone another male in general? More importantly, why hadn't Vincent shaken him off yet?

His fist curled up on its own and his short nails dug into his palm. Being a world renowned model from another country did not give that man the right to act however he pleased. It seemed as though he was gloating in front of everyone that he had the power to do things the rest of them would never dare. As if his fame made him above reproach.

As Sebastian seethed with rising anger, the other models in the room began shaking out of their original stupor.

Alois let out a low whistle somewhere behind Sebastian and Claude and confidently walked past the two, over to where Adrian stood.

The blonde tapped politely on the silver haired man's tall shoulder, having to stretch a little to reach it. Sebastian, having seen Alois flirting from a distance a great many times knew that's exactly what the blonde was doing. Surprisingly, Adrian detached himself from Vincent and leaned instead on his desk offering all of his attention much to Alois's delight.

Sebastian turned his head away, completely fed up with everything happening in front of him.

His gaze fell then to Claude beside him. Claude felt his gaze and turned.

"What?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. Sebastian was confused.

"What do you mean _what_?"

"Why are making that face at me?" Sebastian frowned and quickly adjusted his expression to what he felt was normal. The muscle by his eyebrow felt sore and he realized he must have been frowning for some time.

"I wasn't making a face at you." Claude rolled his eyes.

"Well you were making an extremely unpleasant face that I wouldn't suggest using in a photoshoot. Speaking of- what do you think?" He asked, gesturing with his chin over to where the British model they were to be working with stood.

Sebastian felt his face sour as he looked over there once again.

Vincent had sat back down at his desk, Nina was digging through a filing cabinet and Angelina looked to be reading off something to Vincent as he furiously tapped at his keyboard. Adrian had migrated over to where Ciel and Elizabeth sat, Alois seeming to trail along, and he seemed to be telling them all a story judging by the wide hand gestures.

"I don't like him." Sebastian snapped, moving to sit with Claude on the barstools behind them.

"Yes, that's rather obvious." Claude scoffed. Sebastian reached into his back pocket and took out his pack of cigarettes, taking one out. He popped it into his mouth, holding it steady as he picked up the lighter on the table in front of him.

He cupped his hand around the flame, a force of habit, and lit the cigarette, immediately taking a long drag of it.

Claude observed Sebastian silently as he blew out the smoke to his side, waiting for the explanation he knew was to come.

"Sebastian you can't smoke in here!" Came a voice from the other side of the room. Vincent was frowning at them.

"Then why is this lighter and ashtray conveniently here?" Sebastian called back, amusement in his voice.

"To torture you! Now, seriously, if you set off the fire alarm I'm going to kill you myself." Vincent's face turned grim but after a pause his leaned back in his chair with a grin. " _After_ I fire you of course. Can't have you filing workmen's comp for injuries on the job."

Sebastian chuckled under his breath but acquiesced, taking the cigarette out of his mouth and smothering it in the ashtray. He left it there- for aesthetic. He was the only one that really smoked anyways so those items were actually his, though Vincent had claimed ownership since they were left in his office.

He stood, and Claude stood with him. The two walked over to Diedrich to get their schedules in a silent but mutual agreement that they would surely forget to get their schedules from him if they didn't do it now.

The man was stood over a mess of papers muttering angrily to himself. Sebastian stood beside him for a moment waiting to be noticed and not interrupt him. But after a moment it became clear Diedrich hadn't noticed the two of them at all.

"Diedrich." Sebastian tried. To no avail.

" _Diedrich._ " He tried again, a bit louder.

"What?!" Diedrich snapped, turning suddenly to face the two of them. Strangely, Sebastian felt as though the man was more _human_ for lack of better word now that he knew his secret. He was strict as a drill sergeant and an avid perfectionist but even _he_ had flaws.

Upon realizing who he was talking to, Diedrich sighed and ran a tired hand through his hair.

"Sorry. It's just… I'm just-" He sighed again. With a start, Sebastian realized that he wasn't the only one who must have been annoyed by Adrian's behavior. Diedrich apparently had a thing for Vincent and just had to watch another, much better looking, man fawn all over him.

Suddenly curious, Sebastian couldn't stop his mouth from forming words without his consent.

"You don't like him either?" Diedrich, who had begun searching through the papers suddenly paused and stood perfectly still for a moment.

He looked at Sebastian, his eyes questioning, seemingly at a loss for a words. Sebastian had never really shown interest in speaking to him before and that was clearly the reason for some of the shock.

"Adrian, I mean." Sebastian clarified. He could feel Claude's eyes piercing the side of his skull and his disapproval but he persisted.

Diedrich visibly flinched at the name but that seemed to push him out of whatever mental paralysis he had been in. He began shuffling through the papers once again.

"I know who you're referring to." He seemed to finally find what he was looking for and handed both Claude and Sebastian a thin packet of paper.

"No I don't like him. I think it's more accurate to say that I hate him and was hoping that I would never see him again in my life." Sebastian, intrigued now, pushed further.

"And why is that?" Diedrich frowned, seeming to completely disregard whatever shyness had possessed him before.

"We all went to Weston college in London together. We were all in opposing houses and I couldn't stand either of them. Houses were not meant to be friendly with each other and those two acted as if they were best friends. And then when I became Vincent's - no that's not important. It got out around the school that they were _seeing_ each other and they barely escaped expulsion. And by _association…_ I didn't realize I was - _the whole time_ -" Diedrich seemed to relive the same angers which plagued him when the story took place and refused to finish, grinding his teeth together and staring down at the table in front of him.

Sebastian suddenly regretting asking. He felt nauseated again, almost overwhelmingly this time. Vincent and Adrian used to date? Why hadn't he known that Vincent was...what? _Bisexual?_ More importantly, was he the only one who hadn't known?

As Sebastian and Claude stepped away from the fuming man; Claude finally spoke up,

"You have absolutely no tact whatsoever."

"And what's wrong with that? Sometimes being direct is the best choice."

"You may as well have told him his skin was glowing green with jealously and he had the word _gay_ floating above his head."

"Are you trying to say that isn't the truth?" Sebastian rebutted.

"You're an idiot, Sebastian." Claude sighed.

"What's your point?"

"And a hypocrite." He muttered under his breath.

"What was that?"

"Nothing."

Sebastian put his hand on the office door, ready to leave.

"Wait! Are you two leaving already?!" Elizabeth cried from her seat on the couch.

Sebastian turned towards her, making eye contact instead with those inhumanly green eyes twinkling with curiosity. That uncomfortable feeling he had peaked and he quickly turned to Elizabeth.

"After I take a smoke… yeah." Elizabeth pouted.

"I was hoping that we could all go for lunch or something. As a group." Sebastian raised an eyebrow in amusement.

"You do realize you're not included in this project, right, Elizabeth?" She fidgeted and avoided eye contact.

"Well...yes but it's been awhile since I've seen all of you and… I was hoping Adrian might come along and we could get some advice from a really famous model?" She turned to look at the man she was speaking about. He looked bashful almost, with a relaxed smile on his face.

"I'd be honored... however, jet lag is beginning to set in and an old man like me needs his beauty sleep."

"If you're old what does that make me?!" Vincent called from his desk, overhearing the conversation.

"Elderly!" Adrian yelled with a grin. "Given that your kid here is old enough to have children of his own... Shall I start calling you Gramps?" Vincent's face portrayed his taken offense. Adrian laughed wholeheartedly at him and turned back to Elizabeth, who was now blushing.

"Some other time perhaps?" She nodded enthusiastically then turned back to Sebastian and Claude with a pleading look.

Sebastian sighed, although he was more than happy to accept now that he knew Adrian wasn't going with them.

"Alright, alright I'll go. If Claude doesn't mind."

"I don't."

Sebastian felt like critters were crawling under his skin and shivered with disgust as those man's eyes observed him quietly. He could feel his gaze specifically more than anyone else's and that strange feeling intensified again, seeming to restrict his throat until it was difficult to breathe. He swallowed thickly in an attempt to clear the feeling.

"Just let me smoke for a minute." He said, hastily exiting the room before he could hear Elizabeth's excited squealing.

Claude followed Sebastian like a ghost, his presence almost overbearing as it was obvious he wanted to finish their conversation from earlier.

The two stepped outside, the weather had become cool as a formation of clouds passed overhead.

Sebastian brought the cigarette to his lips and lit it carefully. He closed his eyes and looked up to the sky as he exhaled, sending a plume of smoke into the air.

"He's obnoxious." Sebastian angrily stated. Picking up their conversation smoothly, as though it had never ended.

"Surely no more obnoxious than you are." Claude commented, pushing his glasses up on his face.

"I'm not obnoxious." Sebastian snapped. "But he's just got this incredibly cocky attitude about him. Like he's never been told no by anyone. I get that he's a super famous model from England or whatever and that girls go wild over accents but how are we supposed to get along with someone like that?"

Claude opened his mouth to speak then shut it as his eyes wandered to the door next to them.

A pale hand reached toward Sebastian and plucked the cigarette from his mouth. Sebastian's eyes widened and he followed the hand back to its owner.

"Sebastian, was it?" Adrian asked, with a smirk as he put the cigarette to his own mouth and took a drag from it.

Sebastian stood silent, mouth agape in shock.

Adrian looked pleased with the reaction and after a moment blew out a perfect smoke ring into Sebastian's face, maintaining eye contact the entire time.

He took another drag and blew the smoke out normally, holding the cigarette back out for Sebastian to take.

Sebastian wrapped his fingers around it in a daze.

"Thank you. Been awhile since I've had a menthol. Anyways, I suppose I'll be seeing you around." He turned as if he had only just realized that another person had been standing there observing the exchange.

"And you too…?" He drew out the silence, waiting for the sentence to be finished.

"Claude."

Adrian grinned.

"Right then, I'd better be going. My manager and stylist are flying in and I've got to go and pick them up before I can have any hopes of sleep."

He raised his hand to them in farewell as he walked away and the two of them watched as he walked over to his car- a chrome Aston Martin. The car pulled out of the parking space and turned out onto the street. Sebastian and Claude watched it until it disappeared from their line of vision, in a stunned silence.

Suddenly pissed beyond belief, Sebastian dropped the cigarette resting in his fingers to the concrete, squashing the embers out with the bottom of his shoe in disgust.

"That's not obnoxious?" He hissed. He considered taking out another cigarette but he had completely lost the desire to smoke. Claude made a noise in the back of his throat and took off his glasses wiping the lens with the fabric of his shirt before he put them back on.

Sebastian, being friends with Claude for the majority of their lives, knew about that particular tic his friend had. It was something he did every time he wanted to laugh but was desperately trying not to.

"It's not _funny,_ Claude! What the fuck? Who _does that_?!" Sebastian fumed, throwing a tantrum like a three year old child. To Claude's absolute amusement his friend seemed to not realize how red his face had gotten. Or perhaps he did and was trying to cover his embarrassment with anger.

...

An hour or so later the group of Funtom models had arrived at their favorite restaurant. An All American Diner that specialized in flame broiled burgers and cheesy fries. In reality none of them actually came to the diner for the food, most of them having a natural inclination to healthier foods, and they mostly just ordered milkshakes.

As they entered the restaurant a familiar voice called out to them.

"Oh! Everyone's here! What an unexpected surprise, yes!" Mey-rin rushed over to them, nearly tripping over her own feet in the process. She had once worked in the modelling agency with them but after Vincent realized that the girl was a walking disaster he had been forced to let her go after her contract ended. Of course he realized that fact only after she had completely destroyed a runway show after tripping on stage and grabbing onto a support beam.

Nevertheless she had managed to keep a job as a waitress at the diner although that was likely because she was dating the owner.

Everyone offered greetings as she reached to hug each one of them.

"Bard!" She called, grinning at them and walking them to their usual table. The diner was deserted for the most part despite a lone couple and an incredibly overweight man eating far more than he should have. They had luckily come in between the diners quieter hours, after lunch and a while before dinner. They didn't do breakfast.

"What?!" A gruff voice yelled from the inner sanctum of the building. The five of them settled into a booth, only after Alois tried and failed to get in next to Claude before Sebastian. They were the largest and tallest of the group therefore they sat on one side while Alois sat next to Ciel and Elizabeth on the other side with obvious disappointment.

"I'll go and get him." Mey-rin assured, once a minute had passed and Bardroy hadn't made an appearance. She scurried off into the kitchen with a grin.

Sebastian sighed in irritation and turned his glare to the window. He obviously wasn't in the mood to talk but this only gained the other's attention as he was _always_ in the mood to talk.

"Everything alright Sebastian?" Ciel asked, as he was sitting directly across from the older man. He only got a groan in response and decided to leave it alone.

"He's probably just upset that everyone is going to be paying attention to Adrian and not him. I don't blame him. I'd be pretty upset too if my place was stolen by someone as hot as him." Alois teased, wearing his signature smirk.

"You do realize we all have to model with him, right, Alois?" Ciel asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Of course I do. Don't you get it Ciel? The theme for this project? There are two opposite sides and a force that's connecting them and weaving them together." Everyone at the table, even Sebastian who had now turned his attention back to the table, looked perplexed.

Alois sighed, rolling his eyes.

"You guys are idiots. I thought it was obvious. Ciel and I represent the opposite of Claude and Sebastian. We're younger, shorter, and smaller than the both of you. I'm the opposite of Claude who represents order and refinement. Ciel is the opposite of Sebastian who represents carelessness and confidence. _Adrian_ however, is all of those traits and none of those traits. He stands out the most but also blends in the best. My point was that Sebastian is usually the one to stand out in a project. He's usually paired with Ciel or Claude or someone equally modest. The same could be said about me, of course, but I stand out regardless of who I'm paired with because I'm that great of a model."

The table was shocked into silence. Alois was usually the joking, flirty type and hardly ever said anything with actual intelligence.

"I…" Ciel started, pausing to collect his thoughts a bit more. "I feel like I was just insulted but I'm not sure how."

"I feel the same way." Claude said after a moment.

"How did you even-?" Elizabeth tried, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

Alois sucked his teeth and rolled his eyes again.

"Unlike all of _you_ , I actually have a passion for modelling. I have ever since I was little. I don't do this on a whim, or because my boyfriend does or because my dad is borderline forcing me to. No offense Ciel."

"None taken?"

"If any of you bothered to pay attention to the modelling world it'd be obvious to see." Alois finished, sliding his phone out of pocket and proceeding to type furiously.

"Hey! How's everyone do-" Bardroy suddenly made a cheerful appearance, with his signature cigarette hanging out the side of his mouth- unlit of course. He paused midway in his greeting as he realized the mood at the table was strange. "Ing…?" He finished slowly, frowning.

"What's with the er- weird... _mood_ here?" He asked.

"Alois said something intelligent and somehow managed to insult us at the same time." Ciel explained.

Bard barked out a laugh.

"Shut the fuck up." Alois hissed although he didn't bother even looking up from his phone.

"So what's been going on? I rarely see all of you in here at once. You got a project or something?" Bard inquired, pulling up a chair from a neighboring table. Meyrin had volunteered to manage the restaurant for a little while Bard talked, it was her turn anyways.

"They all have an assignment together, I just thought it'd be nice to all hang out here together."Elizabeth explained with a cheerful smile.

"Assignment _with_ a special guest." Alois added with a mischievous smirk.

"Oh?" Bard asked, suddenly intrigued. Sebastian had grimly turned his head back out to the window.

"A super popular British model-" Alois typed something on his phone and showed the screen to Bardroy. "Adrian Crevan."

Bard's eyes widened in surprise and he took the phone from Alois and began scrolling through it.

"You're _working_ with this guy? Wow that's-"

"Got all your orders here!" Meyrin announced as she approached the table. Her hand shook dangerously as she set the serving tray down and distributed their different variations of milkshakes, ice cream and floats. Everyone always ordered the exact same thing whether they came as a group or by themselves. So they never had to actually order.

"Mey, look at this!" Bard handed Alois' phone to her and her brown eyes widened like a doe's in headlights.

"Is this-" She scrolled furiously through the pictures. "Adrian Crevan?!" A light blush had come to her cheeks and she looked up from the phone suddenly as if realizing something.

"D-don't tell me- you're working with him?! _The Undertaker?!"_ She squealed in delight.

Alois nodded in approval, seeming impressed with her reaction.

"Elizabeth here was trying to get him to come with us but he claimed he had jetlag." If Meyrin's eyes were wide before now they were practically popping out of her skull. She made an inhumanly loud noise.

"I-I'm very glad you didn't, yes. I sure would have… would have _peed_ my pants at the sight of him in the flesh!" Bard frowned and looked up at her.

"That's disgusting." Ciel commented wrinkling his nose.

"Hey, how come you don't pee your pants when you see _me_?" Bardroy snapped.

"Shh Bard." Meyrin hissed.

"I don't like this guy anymore." Bard huffed.

"Yeah, join the club. Sebastian apparently doesn't like him either." Alois quipped.

Claude thought now a fitting time to explain why his friend felt that way. "Sebastian's just upset that Adrian overheard him insulting him."

At that Sebastian whipped his head around fast enough to give himself whiplash.

"That's _not true_!" He protested. "The guy is a pompous asshole I was just telling the truth."

"Whoa, what happened?" Alois asked eagerly, eating a spoonful of his red velvet ice cream.

"He overheard Sebastian insulting him and completely humiliated him." Claude explained, making that same noise in the back of his throat and taking off his glasses to wipe the lenses.

"He took the cigarette from Sebastian's mouth, took a drag from it and gave it back to him." Ciel snorted in an attempt to conceal his bursting laughter and kept his eyes down at his triple chocolate milkshake. Unfortunately, that sound spurred the silenced group into a fit of laughter.

"He indirectly kissed you because you insulted him?" Meyrin squealed. "Maybe he's into that? Oh my god I've never been more jealous of you in my entire life!"

Even Elizabeth was finding it hard to keep it together. Her face was bright red, almost as red as Sebastian's was getting, and she was shaking slightly as she tried to contain her laughter.

"At least the guy's got a sense of humor." Bard sighed, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye. He cleared his throat after laughing so vigorously.

A customer who had walked in pressed down on the bell sitting on the counter to get someone's attention. Meyrin gasped a little as if she had completely forgotten she was supposed to be working and rushed over, nearly tripping on the legs of a chair in the process.

Sebastian was not amused.

"I'm glad you all think that's so funny. I think he's an asshole." He grumbled.

His brooding went unheard as Bard changed the conversation.

"Hey, the guy's gotta be filthy rich right? Was he driving himself?" Claude nodded.

"What kind of car was it?" Bard asked, barely disguising his intrigue.

"A chrome Aston Martin. Looked brand new." The cigarette resting on Bards lower lip almost fell to the ground as his mouth dropped open.

"Holy shit." He managed to stutter. "Was it a foreign car? With the wheel on the right side?"

" I don't think you can drive foreign cars here." Elizabeth commented.

"Why wouldn't you be able to? All you have to do is drive on the opposite side of the street. It might be harder, if anything." Ciel added.

"He got in on the left side so I don't think it was foreign anyways." Claude informed.

Sebastian, clearly fed up, grabbed his pecan ice cream, and stood up in the booth. Claude shot him a confused look.

"You're the fucking worst, I'm leaving. Move."

"Sebastian." Claude tried.

" _Move_." Sebastian repeated, obviously about ready to walk over Claude if he had to.

Claude obliged and moved out of the way,

"How are you planning to get home Sebastian?" He asked, colder this time clearly annoyed with his friends antics. Everything always had to be so dramatic.

"I'll take the fucking bus. Call an uber. I don't care." Sebastian snapped.

"Sebastian…" Elizabeth whined sadly. "We'll stop talking about him if you want."

"He's just embarrassed Lizzie, leave him." Ciel mumbled.

Sebastian barely even heard him as he walked with hasty steps out of the diner.

"See ya!" Bard yelled after him as if nothing had happened.

Sebastian walked down the street a little. Anger suppressing rational thoughts. He took his phone out and called for an uber to come and pick him up. Like he was going to get on a _bus_.

He paced back and forth, refusing to acknowledge the heat burning his face and that odd feeling that had intensified all of a sudden. That feeling as if the weight in his body had reversed and now there was a heavy force pushing the air out of his lungs.

 _Indirectly kissed?_ He thought, _That's disgusting_.

* * *

 **Thank you to those of you who liked the story enough to follow it, I really appreciate it! I'm also really enjoying writing the story and I hope you'll enjoy this chapter as well. For some reason the hardest part of writing this chapter was figuring out what types of ice cream/ milkshakes the main characters would like? I felt like it was really important. Chapter 3 is almost done- you'll be getting it very soon! Thanks for reading!**

 **Side note: Chrome Aston Martin's are _lit_ look it up!**


	3. III

Sebastian was running late. As usual. He had an early morning photoshoot for his magazine job. He had been working with the magazine for a few years now and had landed cover spots a few times now. The magazine, _Black Desire_ , was a male erotica magazine for lack of better word. However, only special edition magazines featured nude models. The regular issue featured "exotic" males that were stunningly attractive and had a large audience- female _and_ male. They were often in underwear only, but for certain personality types particular clothing was preferable for the audience. They often held popularity contests and the winner won the award of being on the cover and having a 4 page feature of themselves in the magazine. This month the winner was Sebastian.

Sebastian didn't mind the job. He looked sexy in most if not all of the photos they took and he appreciated being recognized for his physical attractiveness. Okay, he loved it.

He had, however, gotten multiple warnings from the magazine about his constant tardiness. So it was with increasing haste and panic that he rushed into the studio nearing knocking over a man exiting and mumbling barely discernable apologies at him. His eyes searched desperately for the numbers he was looking for… _3a...3a...3a…_

There it was! His hand reached out for the handle and he swung it open propelling himself into the room.

The staff and crew dispersed around the room all turned immediately towards the intrusion though the majority looked away uninterestedly. Sebastian's eyes found the projector director and he hurried over. The short blonde woman seemed to be yelling to a crew member about the lighting and fully aware of how short the temper of the small director ran he was hesitant to interrupt. Unfortunately, she turned around just as he was about to retreat. Her icy blue eyes focused on him and subsequently made his blood run cold enough to freeze him in place.

"You're late." She bit, sharply, coldly, like biting down on ice.

"I'm sorry, Victoria." Sebastian said almost immediately, resisting the urge to take to his knees and beg for forgiveness from the look she was giving him.

"One more time Sebastian, _I mean it_. If you can't take your job seriously and stop wasting all our precious time than we don't need you in the magazine." She breathed sharply in and out, rolling her eyes in the process in some sort of attempt to not outright scream at him as she had done many, many times before.

"At least he's also late and he's an actual professional. So I'll pardon you just this once Sebastian, do you hear me? Just this once." Sebastian furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"Wait, what? _Who_? Who else is supposed to be here? I thought I was doing a solo shoot." Victoria's eyes may have been icy blue but they turned into downright hellfire as rage overtook her.

"Do _not_ ," She hissed. "Tell me that you don't even have the common sense to check your email." Sebastian opened his mouth looking defensive and Victoria immediately cut him off.

"The degree of unprofessionalism you have is _ridiculous_!" She had begun to shout now, her ivory skin taking on red tones. "How can you even call yourself a model when you can't bother to show up on time or keep up to date with changes in the schedule?! What is wrong with you?! Who _hired_ you in the first place! You may have good looks but your attitude towards work is _disgusting_!" Sebastian groaned internally. Once the woman began yelling there was almost no stopping her tirade until she was certain she had gotten her point across.

"Not only are you late but you have _no_ idea what we're even doing today!"

"Now, now ma'am. Give the poor lad a break." A deeply accented and _familiar_ voice said from the entrance of the studio. Sebastian followed the sound and felt his bodily organs fall into his gut as a sudden rush of panic engulfed him. _Adrian_. What was he even doing here, Sebastian wondered. He was hoping he wouldn't have to see him for another 2 weeks.

The silver haired man was leaning in the doorway with an incredibly amused smirk on his face. His long hair was pulled up into a ponytail fastened with a long black ribbon and his messy bangs were tracing the contours of his face. The hairstyle revealed the many various silver and black piercings lining his ears. Sebastian couldn't help but feel that although he had been speaking to Victoria, the man had been staring at him since the moment he entered the room.

"A-Adrian!" Victoria gasped, then blushing wildly- quickly corrected herself. "M-Mr. Crevan! How nice of you to actually join us this morning." Sebastian noticed that she swallowed thickly and took a second to gather herself before continuing. He was slightly impressed, Adrian had managed to fluster her. Although, it really wasn't all that strange.

The man in question grinned widely, stepping further into the room. Two other people entered the room behind him. The first, a man in a pinstripe business suit looked stoic and serious and the way he surveyed the room then adjusted his glasses seemed to spew indifference.

The second… Well, being in the modelling business Sebastian had seen his fair share of strange and unique individuals but this person was… by _far_ the strangest.

They had long red hair that was almost blinding in how inhuman the color was, and the cat eared glasses they wore was of a similar color. They were wearing a white shirt complete with black suspenders and a trench coat as red as the rest of their ensemble finished the look.

Sebastian made eye contact with the person accidentally and the red headed individual blushed and coyly brought their sleeved hand up to their mouth to hide their embarrassment and waggled their fingers at him seductively. Sebastian swallowed down his disgust and quickly looked away.

Adrian was apologizing profusely to Victoria, grasping both of her hands in his.

"I really was intending to be on time, however, my associates here-" He gestured to the two people standing behind him. "Are very unfamiliar with the way that American streets work and we had an incredibly difficult time finding our way to this studio." He paused for a moment and his lip curved up in an amused smirk.

"On the _wrong_ side of the street."

The one in the business suit huffed, stepping forward.

"My sincerest apologies, this is the first time I have ever driven in America and I was not forewarned of the road differences beforehand." His voice was sharp, clear and the pointed look he gave Adrian suggested he was much more annoyed and flustered than he let on.

"But excuse us, we're late and we've yet to even introduce ourselves.

"I am William Spears, Adrian Crevan's manager. And my associate here," He paused and looked over to the redhead with obvious disdain.

" _Oh_ -" the redhead squealed excitedly seemingly feigning bashfulness. "My name is Grell Sutcliffe and I am this beautiful man's stylist. And although I may be taken by his charm." Grell looked pointedly at Sebastian.

"I am _very_ single and _very_ ready to mingle. If you know what I mean…" William frowned and adjusted his glasses agitatedly.

"Mr. Sutcliffe, _please._ This is a work environment please keep the flirting for another time and place."

Grell pouted but sent another suggestive look Sebastian's way, sending a terrified shiver down the Raven haired man's body.

"Right, well, that's enough time wasted don't you think? Let's get started."

Victoria shook out of her stupor, brought on by the antics of the redhead.

"Um… yes. Yes! Let's get started." She turned her icy glare back to Sebastian. "Now I'll reiterate what the plan was since _you_ apparently cannot be bothered to check your email."

"You managed to win the poll once again for favorite model, although I'm not sure why you're work ethic is terrible, so you already know we were going to do your feature for the magazine. Now the change we made was that we heard Adrian is in town and he used to model for us a long time ago when we were solely in London so we thought it would be a good opportunity to do a double feature and have the both of you in the cover together." Together? Pose with _him?_

Sebastian frowned and opened his mouth ready to dispute but at the severe glare Victoria gave him he quickly snapped his mouth closed.

"There will be _no_ arguing at this point. I wasn't aware that you had bad work ethic and behaved like a primadonna just because you won a popularity poll a few times but this is a great opportunity for you to work with such an esteemed professional. Perhaps he'll rub off on you a small bit." Sebastian was too angry to even feel embarrassed at his constant reprimanding in front of Adrian and company.

"But Victoria -" He began quickly chasing after her as she walked away.

Suddenly a hand clapped down on his shoulder and he spun around in surprise.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Adrian murmured dangerously close to Sebastian's ear. "Wouldn't want to see unprofessional now, would we?"

Sebastian resisted the urge to violently shove the man off of him and instead brushed him off completely pretending not to hear him.

He decided instead that he should check his email more often and begrudgingly went into the dressing room.

The underwear that had been laid out for him was leather. Not just any leather but shiny,thick and made to resemble latex. The sides had little chains and the entire thing altogether reminding him of a bdsm porno he had watched once.

He stripped and slid the garment on. It fit snugly, comfortably not squeezing his balls too close to his body.

A makeup artist knocked on the door as he was finishing and he let them in. They applied a light makeup to his face, darkening under his eyes and running a red chapstick over his lips. He usually did his hair before he got to a photoshoot but he had messed it up a little bit while undressing so the artist took out a brush and some hairspray to get it to stay in place.

Finally, a routine practiced with every underwear shoot, the artist pulled out a spray bottle with a mixture of water and oil covering his body in a watery sheen. When he declared as good as he was going to be he thanked the artist, he had at least that much decency, and exited the room. There was a buzz around the set, a mix of muttering and excited chattering.

Sebastian frowned, confused. He got closer to the main set, stretching onto the tips of his toes to see over a few particularly tall heads.

He saw then, exactly what they were looking at.

Adrian had apparently gotten done a while before Sebastian had and was now modelling for a few practice shots.

Except… _he was stunning_. In an inhuman, indescribable way.

His hair had been taken out of his ponytail and wet slightly judging by the slight wavy pattern it had. On his head a police hat sat with a few tendrils of circular chains hanging down and mixing in with his hair, the silvery metal peeking out in places from the similarly colored hair. His body had a similar sheen as Sebastian's had however his build was completely different. Feminine in the hips and his stomach was well defined but smooth. He had on similar underwear as well except they had handcuffs attached to them.

It was obvious to anyone that saw him that he was a professional. He changed position and stance slightly with every click of the camera almost as if in a perfectly synchronized dance. He had his bottom lip worried between his teeth as he looked seductively into the camera, then his lip was released and his hand rested close to his bare thigh as his torso leaned forward, then his pink tongue was between his tongue as he winked,

Sebastian couldn't look away.

So it was with a start that he came back to his senses as Victoria shoved him from behind, yelling something about "joining him already and doing what they were paying him for". Sebastian glanced at her at a loss as she was already walking away and when he turned his attention back in front of him that seductive gaze was no longer focused on the camera but directly on him and his heart pounded thunderously. He looked away immediately, his breath completely stolen from him and his heart continued to pound like an energizer bunny in his chest.

He took a deep, embarrassingly shaky breath, and made his way through the small crowd letting the photographer know that he was joining. The set paused as he stepped up onto the slightly lifted platform.

Sebastian would never admit it out loud but he was nervous, in fact more nervous than he had ever been in his life. Even with the weird way his breath kept catching around this man it also occurred to him as he got on the platform that even though the man was an arrogant asshole he was good at what he did and a renowned professional for a reason. And Sebastian was expected to just get up and model with the same precision and finesse with him right _now_.

Adrian seemed to pick up on his hesitation.

"I assume you're aware of the theme we're going with for the shoot, yes?"

"Uh- no." Sebastian gasped out, trying desperately to get his rampaging heart under control.

Adrian clicked his tongue.

Suddenly, Sebastian felt a soft material on his bare shoulder and a surge of body heat. Looking towards the feeling he only saw a curtain of silvery hair. Adrian had gotten close, too close. Again.

His breath tickled Sebastian's ear as he spoke again, whispering now.

"Captured."

Sebastian swallowed thickly, not understanding what he meant by the word.

"Tilt your head back a little, and position your spine to the left so that your shoulders are angled down." Sebastian, not knowing what else to do, followed the instructions as best as he could.

" _Hee, hee_ …" Adrian giggled quietly, the rush of air raising goosebumps on Sebastian's bare shoulder. "You follow instructions very well… _pet_." Captured. It made sense all of a sudden.

Sebastian immediately recoiled at the name, all too suddenly realizing that he had been swayed by this arrogant man and remembering that he could actually model himself. In light of the fact, he almost broke away from the man stopping only when a chin was suddenly nestled in the crook of his neck and a flush naked body was pressed against his warm skin.

"Ah, ah.. The cameras remember? Look at them if you'd please." Irritated and feeling all too many sensations at once, Sebastian looked into the camera he hadn't even realized had been flashing.

Adrian straightened again once Sebastian had relaxed but took advantage of opening and rested a palm on Sebastian's shoulder, his other hand going down to lace their fingers together.

Sebastian looked to where their hands were connected in a panic, immediately struggling to wriggle out of the grasp yet Adrian's hold was tight and struggling any further would be seen by their audience.

Sebastian was uncomfortable, he had modeled with plenty of overly friendly and openly gay male models and even though he had been uncomfortable then it was simply for the sake of the photoshoot that they were so handsy. Adrian's movements felt more deliberate as though he was putting everything he had into making Sebastian feel uncomfortable and it was working.

As though Adrian was proving that point he shifted positions once again, letting go of his vice like grip and placing both of his hands right above the line of Sebastian's underwear. His pinky finger dangerously, _dangerously_ close to his manhood.

"What are you doing?" Sebastian grinded out trying his best to his face stoic and smoldering.

Adrian continued shifting, placing his chin on top of his Sebastian's head then cocking his head and moving his mouth close to Sebastian's neck so close that his hot breath was drying the mixture of water and oil there. Sebastian looked at him out of the corner out his eye when he received no response and saw the expression he made towards to the camera.

A dangerously seductive grin that was more like an extreme smirk, his eyes looking up through his long lashes and speaking dirty words with their intensity.

Now, Sebastian wasn't gay, bisexual or in any way interested in men. But the level of lust that expression displayed was enough to make the snugness of his leathery latex undergarments almost unbearable. A fact he realized with growing horror.

"Having some fun." Adrian finally answered, letting go of Sebastian completely. The photoshoot had come to a brief pause, not that Sebastian noticed or even heard Victoria yelling at the crew to prepare for Sebastian's feature next over the loud thumping of his heart in his ears.

" _Having some fun_?" Sebastian repeated, incredulously. His embarrassment was quickly becoming overpowered by anger. "Do you even realize how arrogant you sound when you open your mouth?" He spat.

"Listen to me if I ever have a partnered assignment with you ever again I'm quitting the assignment, working with you is just as impossible as I thought it would be. _Having fun_. Did you forget we're _working_?" Adrian was grinning now, seeming thoroughly pleased with himself.

"No, of course not. I was actually modelling to the best of my ability with a proclaimed model lacking an ounce of professionalism and standing there like a limp noodle while posing with me. So I think the question is," he glanced pointedly down then back up at Sebastian. " _Did you_?"

With a wink, he was walking away presumably to get ready for his personal shoot and Sebastian was left with the humiliating feeling of defeat. Though he wasn't really sure what he had been playing at to begin with.

* * *

 **This chapter was _way_ too fun to write. I've never actually written a modelling or posing scene so I hope that came across alright- if not just know that Adrian's sexiness totally gave Sebastian a boner. That's all you need to know really. **

**Hope you guys enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it! See you very soon with the next chapter!**

 **PS. The magazine would probably be "Kuro Hoshii" or " Kuro Joyuku" in Japanese. _I'm so clever_. **


	4. IV

"Anybody know what's wrong with Sebastian?" Vincent asked irritably.

It had quickly become December and two weeks had passed since Sebastian's shoot for Black Desire. December, of course, marked the beginning of the Funtom Winter Modelling campaign. Meaning that all the involved members had shown up for a mandatory initial fitting. Sebastian was in a noticeably terrible mood, evident by not only his sour face and snappy remarks but also his absolute unwillingness to comply with Angelina's requests. She had gotten him into one of the more important outfits but the pants were not fitting correctly on Sebastian's lanky figure. So, she had pulled out her sewing needles and attempted to fix the problem. Sebastian, however, was making her job increasingly difficult by staring off into space with a mixture of expressions- therefore not hearing her cautionary direction and launching into a fit befitting the Queen of England when his leg was repeatedly stuck with pins.

The rest of the group was spread throughout the room in varying states of decency, as both Angelina, Nina, and a few of her assistants worked on fitting a variety of different clothings onto them.

The source of Sebastian's frustrations was of course across the room from him, the green eyed man smirking despite himself every time the raven haired man launched into a fit.

Even Angelina, usually extremely patient due to her medical background, was getting tired of Sebastian's antics. Everyone else was at least half way through their fitting while Sebastian had been held back with the same pants for just over an hour.

Claude huffed, wanting to push up his glasses as well but resisted since his sleeves were having buttons sewn onto them.

"I have an idea." He muttered. Vincent raised an eyebrow at him, frustration shown clearly on his face when Claude offered up no other information.

"Go talk to him." Vincent demanded. " _Now_. Angelina is going to end up stabbing the major aorta in his thigh if he yells at her again."

Nina's assistant, hearing the command, finished up the button she was working on and stepped away from Claude, walking quickly to the other side of the room to assist Nina with Ciel and Alois. She had refused to work on the others.

"Sebastian, Claude- take five please!" Vincent called out.

Angelina sighed and straightened, removing the pins from Sebastian's pant leg after another unsuccessful attempt. Sebastian was obviously disheveled and brusquely walked out of the room, escaping the overbearing gaze that he had consistently felt since Adrian arrived.

Claude walked with quick steps after him, hoping he didn't do something stupid like leave or hide somewhere while out of his sight.

"Sebastian!" Claude called as he entered the hallway, seeing a dark figure turn round a corner. He jogged after the figure and only after the two got outside did Sebastian stop walking.

He leaned against the brick facade, breathing out a deep sigh.

"Hey." Claude snapped, he had diminishing patience for Sebastian's attitude ever since he had laid eyes on Adrian and to be completely honest Claude was done dealing with the pointless drama and tension.

Sebastian said nothing, keeping his gaze on the concrete pavement below them but his head turned in Claude's direction to let him show that he had heard.

"What the hell's the matter with you?" Claude asked, not entirely expecting an answer.

Sebastian held his silence for a long time, calming down as the strong winter wind whipped across their bodies, the traces of biting cold almost enough to draw a shiver.

"These pants are ugly." He stated after some time.

"What?" Claude demanded, barely having heard him.

"They don't suit me at all, the color is all wrong, the stitching is too light, this color makes my legs look too fat."

" _Sebastian_." Claude hissed, suddenly becoming all too tempted to hit him.

"It doesn't even go with the jacket." Sebastian mumbled. "I mean are they colorblind? 3 out of 5 men are colorblind and even I can tell these blacks are two different colors."

" _Sebastian!_ " Claude nearly yelled, coming to his wits end with his friends erratic behavior. Sebastian visibly winced and finally looked up, meeting Claude's eyes.

He sighed. "I had to do a shoot with him. For Black Desire. It was awful, he's the most conniving, arrogant, _ridiculous-_ "

"Sebastian." Claude interrupted, pinching his nose in frustration. "I don't care. I don't want to hear about what happened right now. You need to remember that modelling is your job and you're getting paid for doing it. You're a professional and you're acting like anything but right now. Everyone in there needs you to do your job not sulk and act out like a thirteen year old girl on her period."

Sebastian clenched his teeth, visibly offended by the comment. But even he couldn't deny it's truth. However, knowing he was wrong and doing something to fix it were two separate things altogether. He _couldn't_ focus while in the same room as Adrian. Not only was the gaze of that man suffocating but he also felt as though they had done something in secret and Adrian was constantly teasing him with that knowledge. He had gotten an erection in the middle of a photoshoot due to him and Sebastian didn't even want to consider the implications of that.

He didn't want to- but he also hadn't slept soundly or gotten off in two weeks and the stress was wearing on him.

He sighed heavily, contenting himself with the knowledge that he could leave earlier if he just focused for a little while and got this done.

"Just- give me a couple minutes alright?" Sebastian huffed pulling out a cigarette from his coat pocket along with a lighter.

Claude watched him, irritation evident in his eyes, but acquiesced with a sharp sigh before he disappeared back into the building.

Sebastian took a few drags from his cigarette, looking up at the sky with a blank mind.

Suddenly the door the next to him opened and someone stepped out.

"Claude just give me like 5 minutes alright?" Sebastian snapped, but an amused chuckle greeted him instead of Claude's voice.

Sebastian looked up immediately, shocked to see Adrian standing before him.

His shock dissipated as a flicker of memory passed through his mind.

"Here to steal a drag of my cigarette again?" He asked sassily.

Adrian chuckled at that as well and leaned against the wall next to Sebastian.

"No, not today. Unless you're offering of course."

"I'm not." Sebastian snapped.

"Right well, I couldn't help but notice your… distraction today. And I just wanted to assure you that I have the full intent to act with the utmost professionalism for the duration of our work together." Sebastian was at a loss for words at the statement and simply muttered,

"Okay…"

"I may have overstepped my boundaries the other day and I apologize for that. I would hate for the project to be jeopardized by any… discourse between us so I hope you'll accept my apology." Sebastian frowned and looked over at Adrian, wondering if those were indeed his true intentions or if he was being messed with.

But as he peered into those startlingly green eyes he saw no ulterior motive and quickly broke eye contact.

"Well… thank you." Sebastian said stiffly. Absentmindedly taking another drag of his cigarette.

"You're welcome. I'll leave you alone then." And with those words Adrian disappeared back into the building.

Sebastian felt an odd pang deep within his heart for some odd reason. It felt kind of lonely all of sudden but just as soon as the feeling came it was gone once again.

...

Several hours later, everyone was wrapping up with their fittings. To Sebastian's extreme discontent Adrian had finished first and had hung around to talk with Vincent and offer advice to some of Nina's assistants. Meaning not only did Sebastian have to deal with his presence for longer but he also had to deal with the occasional school girl giggling from the assistants as Adrian flirted with them.

Finally, everyone was getting their things together and taking a few more measurements for future fittings. Alois spoke up suddenly,

"Hey, so… A friend of mine just opened a club recently and asked me to come with a few friends tonight to boost attendance."

"Oh?" Adrian spoke, intrigued. The rest of the group looked up as well.

"Yeah, and I was wondering if you all wanted to come?"

"Is it that new club off of 25th?" Claude asked, raising an eyebrow. Alois grinned, overjoyed by Claude's attention on him.

"Yes! It's called Reapers." Ciel made a face.

"That's a weird name." Alois turned towards him,

"It's not a gay club or anything, Ciel. You can bring Elizabeth since she really wanted us all to go out, remember?"

"Well, she really wanted to talk to Adrian so…" Ciel trailed off looking over to the silver haired man.

Adrian grinned, "I'd love to go- It's been awhile since I last properly experienced an American club."

Ciel nodded, clubs weren't his thing but if Elizabeth found out he declined he would never hear the end of it.

"Alright, we'll be there then." Curious gazes turned to Claude and Sebastian.

"We're going as well." Claude spoke, staring intently at his phone but noticing the silence and the eyes on him.

Sebastian baulked.

" _What_?" He snapped, narrowing his eyes in complete confusion.

"We're going." Claude repeated. "You could use a drink and I'm going to see to it personally that you do."

"I can have a drink at my _own apartment."_ Sebastian hissed, hoping that Claude would stop ignoring the daggers his eyes were stabbing him with.

" _We're going._ " Claude replied, his voice booming with all the authority of a pissed off parent.

Sebastian opened his mouth again but Claude suddenly looked up his eyes daring him to continue. Sebastian's mouth closed immediately reading the unspoken words in that glare- _keep going and I'll never drive you anywhere again._

He sighed and turned towards the rest of their group.

"Guess we're going too." He acquiesced, letting his displeasure seep into his tone.

" _Hee, hee_!" Adrian cackled, tossing his head back making Sebastian instinctively frown. "You too are delightful."

"They're always like that." Alois added with a smirk. "See you guys there at 8!" He winked, and with a flourish was gone.

...

"I still don't understand why you're forcing me to come with you." Sebastian sulked in the passenger seat of Claude's car. They had just found a parking spot outside of Reapers. Sebastian had to wonder what exactly Alois' friend had met about _boosting attendance_ seeing as the gigantic parking lot was absolutely packed.

"I'm not forcing you to come with me. I'm forcing you to go and coming with you to make sure you stay." Claude corrected snappily. He took his keys out of the ignition and exited the car not bothering to wait for Sebastian's response.

Sighing with growing irritation, Sebastian climbed out of the car as well before Claude resorted to dragging him into the club.

Silently they navigated their way through the parking lot, the booming music increasing in volume as they grew closer.

Looking more closely they could see that the entrance even had a long line with a bouncer checking a clipboard for names. _Did this club really just open a few days ago?_

"Claude! Over here!" A familiarly high pitched voice called from the line. Sebastian noted that the blonde had completely ignored his existence.

The two of them walked over, noting the intense glare the bouncer was suddenly giving them and decided to not cut in the line.

Alois noted their hesitance, looked toward the bouncer and made an annoyed sound.

"Hold on!" He yelled, pushing through the line until he was directly in front of the burly man.

"Hi guys!" Elizabeth chimed from the line. Claude and Sebastian greeted her and Ciel. Apparently Adrian hadn't arrived yet. Sebastian amusedly wondered if he was having trouble navigating the roads.

"Hey!" Alois shouted at them, waving his hands. The bouncer standing next to him looked annoyed as if he would rather do anything but let them in.

Nevertheless, Ciel and Alois stepped out of the line and joined up with Sebastian and Claude as they made their way to the entrance.

"He sent someone to get Ron." Alois informed as they stopped before him.

"Ron?" Elizabeth questioned.

"Yeah, the owner of the club. My close friend Ron- well his full name is Ronald Knox but he goes by Ron."

Sebastian couldn't help but wonder how exactly Alois was close friends with someone with enough money to finance this entire club. But the more he thought about it the more he decided he didn't really want to know.

After a few moments of waiting, the club doors opened and a rather annoyed looking man walked out. His hair was strangely dyed- blonde on top and black beneath that. His sense of fashion was at least sensible, a simple black and white suit with a narrow tie and thick - what looked like Oakely- rimmed glasses sitting atop his nose.

The man's face brightened considerably as he laid eyes on Alois.

"Alois!" The man exclaimed. A huge grin appearing on his face as he took in Alois' company.

"How's it going, Ron?" Alois greeted, sporting his signature flirty grin. The two hugged affectionately, only adding fuel to Sebastian's earlier hypothesis.

"It's going well, it's going well!" Ron grinned, looking over towards the long entrance line.

"So, I see you brought some friends-" he said, turning his attention to the four well dressed people behind Alois. "This can't be all the people you could bring, now could it? Come on Alois don't hold out on me!" Ron jested, slinging an arm around his shorter friend.

Alois scoffed, feigning offense. "These are my modelling friends, I of course would only bring you the best looking people. Clubs require certain appearances after all." All of the aforementioned friends were thoroughly shocked by the compliment.

"So," Alois said promptly. "This is Elizabeth, Ciel, Claude, and Sebastian." He introduced each with a wave of the hand. Ronald shook hands with them each in turn as well.

Although at the introduction of Claude, Ronald appraised him carefully. " _This_ is _the_ Claude?" He asked Alois, seemingly amazed. Alois nodded, proudly. Ronald considered Claude again and nodded several times in succession. "Not bad, I might even go for him myself." He said under his breath.

Claude, of course, overheard and sent a disgusted look Alois' way.

"Nice to meet you all, now I'm sure you'd like to actually get inside and not stand out here talking all night in this cold air." He turned swiftly on his heel and was about to reenter the club when suddenly a voice rang out behind them.

"Wait for us!"

The voice was eerily familiar and Sebastian's gut sank before his brain could even process who it might have been. The group turned to look.

Adrian had apparently arrived, yet he was not the owner of the voice that had called out.

"Adrian!" Elizabeth called, her face lighting up like a christmas tree at the sight of him. He grinned and waved at her as he and his companion approached.

"Did you get lost?" Alois asked, worry evident in his tone.

"No, no." Adrian assured. "Grell insisted on coming with me at the last minute." The ruby red companion of his grinned.

"It takes time to look this fabulous. I can't believe you were about to leave without me." They responded, pouting.

A murmur had started among the line, and Ronald walked over to the group shock covering his features.

"Are you… _The Undertaker_?" He asked, in complete disbelief of the person standing in front of him.

" _Hee, hee_." Adrian giggled. "How I do love that title." Ronald's face paled, and he held out a visibly shaking hand.

"I-It's an honor to meet you, sir." Adrian politely shook his hand.

"The pleasure is all mine- It's quite the impressive feat to own your own club at your age." Ron blanched for a moment, then seemingly regained his composure with a quick clearing of his throat.

"Thank you, I'm very proud of it." His gaze slid over to the fiery redhead beside the silver haired man. "And who's your companion?"

Grell gave him a flirty smile along with a wink.

"Ah, this is my stylist Grell Sutcliffe." Adrian offered.

"Hi~" Grell chimed, with a wriggle of fingers at Ron.

Ron smiled back politely then turned to Alois- resting his arm across the smaller man's shoulders again.

"Well I must say you _certainly_ brought the best of the best, Alois."

Alois smiled despite himself. "I already told you that. I don't disappoint."

Ron grinned, and squeezed Alois tighter into his side."No, no you certainly don't." He murmured with strangely sexual undertones.

"Well!" He announced to the group. "You're not making my club look good by standing out here, let's get you guys to the special guest section!"

...

Sebastian was having the worst time of his life. Upon entering the club his mood had been looking up, his heart excited by the bright lights and booming music. But after they had all been sitting for a while the group had split up a bit.

Elizabeth had said she wanted to dance and half-dragged Ciel to the dance floor with her. Ronald had left them to make rounds at his club promising to return though he hadn't yet and Sebastian doubted that he would. Alois had been upset at first but Sebastian noticed him giving flirty looks to some guy on the dance floor and had slinked off with him sometime in the night. Which left Sebastian at the table with the three people he least wanted to be around. Claude, Adrian and Grell.

Grell had been getting on his last nerves since the moment they sat had practically shoved Adrian out of the way when the silver haired man made moves to sit next to Sebastian on the loveseat and promptly sat infuriatingly close to him. And though Sebastian had been attempting to ignore them -and the sudden hand dangerously close to his crotch- by talking with Claude, Claude had sat a distance away from him and the music was so loud he would have to yell at the top of his lungs for Claude to hear him.

" _Sebby~"_ Grell cooed, moving into Sebastian's line of sight. Sebastian groaned internally.

"Yes?" He answered, tersely.

"You were _very_ impressive at the shoot the other day." The hand moved ever so slightly closer. "I looked at some of your other work too and I'm a huge fan."

"I'm glad." Sebastian responded trying to convey how uninterested he was in his tone. He removed the hand from his lap but Grell immediately laced their fingers together. Sebastian sighed with growing frustration and rolled his eyes.

Though, upon rolling them he caught a glance over to where Claude and Adrian had been speaking to each other.

Ronald had surprisingly returned and was talking with Adrian while Claude was suddenly nowhere in sight.

 _Where the fuck did he go?_ Sebastian wondered angrily, wondering if he had been left here all by himself even though Claude was the one who dragged him here in the first place.

Grell was still talking to him but Sebastian couldn't take his eyes off of Ron and Adrian. Sebastian couldn't hear what they were saying but there was something decidedly flirty in their interaction.

As Sebastian kept looking at them, Ron laughed and said something then Adrian said something back, then Ron looked surprised but he grinned wickedly and stood up from his seat to speak directly into Adrian's ear.

"Hey," Sebastian said suddenly, turning towards Grell who looked delighted by the sudden attention. "Can you get me a drink?" Grell hesitated and Sebastian quickly followed up,

"I would get one myself but I wouldn't want to leave you sitting over here looking lonely. It can be dangerous at clubs like this." Grell blushed, and scrambled up not even bothering to ask what Sebastian wanted before bouncing off to the bar.

Sebastian clenched his teeth in a sudden surge of irritation as he caught sight of the two once again.

...

" _Another_." Syllables drunkenly slurred together as Sebastian lifted his glass and gestured to the bartender.

" _Sebby,"_ Grell called worriedly, attempting to get Sebastian to lower the glass. "You're drunk." They announced as Sebastian resisted.

Sebastian whirled around, nearly knocking himself off of the barstool he was perched on .

"I thought that was obvious?" He asked, though it was more of a statement with a hint of questioning at the end. "I would like to become _more_ drunk please. So- bartender- _please_." The bartender raised her eyebrows at Grell silently asking if it was okay.

"No! He's drunk. Too drunk!" Almost as if on cue Sebastian slammed his empty glass on the bar and slumped over. Grell moved quickly to catch him and keep him from falling to the floor but Sebastian quickly proved to be the heavier person and Grell was crushed under the sudden weight.

"Se...bas...tian…" Grell grunted out, putting all of their effort into keeping them both off the floor.

"Whoa, whoa there!" A sudden deep voice called out and strong hands managed to get Sebastian back into his chair and set Grell upright.

Silver hair reflected in Sebastian's eyes as he rested his weight against the bar instead.

"Someone have a little too much to drink?" Followed by a low chuckle.

"Yes!" Grell chirped indignantly, taking care to smooth their now messy red hair and ruffled clothing.

"Never thought I'd see such a _professional_ so completely knackered." When Sebastian produced no response to the teasing words, Adrian sighed and looked around.

"Sebastian!" He called to get the younger man's attention, getting only a grunt in response. "Where's Claude gone off to? Let's have him get you home."

Sebastian made a choked sound that sounded something like snicker. "Gone. He escaped without me. Damn good for nothing…" Sebastian trailed off sleepily, lightly pounding his fist on the bar in his outrage.

"That so?" Adrian mused, surveying the club once more. "Well it seems none of your other friends are in sight so I suppose the duty falls on me to get you home."

Sebastian frowned although his face was covered by his arms.

He wanted to resist but he was _so intensely sleepy_ …

"Alright, Grell give me some help with him- so irresponsible to leave him alone like this."

Sebastian felt hands grab onto him again as his consciousness slipped away and he was pulled into a sea of darkness.

* * *

 **Sorry if this chapter was a little all over the place, it's kind of filler and filler is really hard for me to write but thankfully there will probably not be anymore until the end! I am very excited to write the next few chapters - so excited that I literally wrote half of the next chapter in like an hour! Hope you guys are excited to read thank you for the support thus far!**

 **Happy Holidays! Hope you're still alive afters finals!**

 **Side note: The club name is Reapers and almost all of the reapers were in it at the same time. Gosh once again I'm so clever. (not really)**


	5. V

**A week later...**

Sebastian walked into the restaurant, looking around for a familiar face.

"May I- um… help you sir?" A small waitress asked beside him. He turned to her and her eyes widened as a blush crept onto her cheeks.

Sebastian, oblivious, answered her while still looking around the restaurant,

"Yes, I'm looking for Faustus?" Not seeing Claude, he turned back to her giving her his full attention.

The waitress fidgeted under his gaze and scrambled over to the reservation list, skimming through it.

"Faustus…" She mumbled running her finger down the list of names. "Ah! There… okay if you'll follow me then?" Sebastian nodded and smiled politely only inflaming the cheeks of the small girl even further.

She began walking away and Sebastian followed her dutifully. She turned a corner and brought them into the more secluded back of the restaurant and it became apparent that they sat customers with children near the front.

As they walked further Sebastian spotted the familiar bespectacled face he had been looking for. The waitress walked him all the way to the table, causing Claude and his companion to look up.

"H-Here you are, sir." The waitress said somewhat awkwardly.

"Thank you." Sebastian responded, and she nodded stiffly before quickly walking back to her post.

"Why are you always late, Sebastian?" Claude grimaced, getting up from his seat and slid in on the other side.

"Because you invited me to breakfast on a Saturday at eight in the morning." Sebastian retorted, sliding in the now empty booth seat. "Good morning, Hannah." He greeted, cheerfully. Completely opposite to his tone with Claude.

Hannah, Claude's fiancee, smiled amusedly. She had been privy to many of Claude and Sebastians… _disputes_ and always thought them amusing. Claude was not an individual that showed his emotions very well or very often but Sebastian always managed to rile them out. It was obvious to anyone that they had been close for a long time.

"I believe the question was why are you _always late_ , Sebastian." Claude responded.

"Because I believe being fashionably late is a way of life." Sebastian replied snidely.

"Oh, is that so?" Claude asked with an overly patronizing tone.

"Yeah, and how many times have I said not to use that disgusting tone with me. It makes me want to punch you." Sebastian snapped.

Claude rolled his eyes. "Please, Sebastian you wouldn't hurt a fly."

"And what is _that_ supposed to mean?" Sebastian demanded, raising his voice.

"Gentlemen, please." Hannah interrupted. "We'll be here all day if the two of you don't stop acting like children."

Sebastian's anger flared up. "The _child_ here is Claude. How can you just force your best friend to go to a club he obviously didn't want to go to and then just _leave_ _him without a fucking ride_!? I got drunk just like _you_ wanted me to and I had to be taken home by Adrian and Grell!"

"Best friend? Who is that supposed to be? I'm not friends with children that don't drive themselves and don't know their own alcohol intake limit." Claude deflected with a scowl.

" _Claude_."

Claude sighed, adjusting his glasses. "I don't even understand why you're still angry about that- it's been a week. And I already told you I promised Hannah that I would make dinner and I forgot about it so I had to go home immediately. It's not my fault you refuse to drive and got drunk. If you were less of an idiot you would have called a taxi."

" _Less of an idi-_ " Sebastian exploded was interrupted by a small voice.

"Excuse me." He turned his head, it was the waitress from before. Her face was inflamed once again.

"Um… do you mind… keeping it down?" She spoke, wincing as if were physically painful for her to ask.

Sebastian bit down his anger and let out a sigh. "Of course. My apologies."

The girl nodded and a slightly awkward silence followed.

"U-um… also!" The girl squeaked in a suddenly high pitched voice which only reddened her face further. "Did...Did you want a menu or a… beverage?"

"Oh." Sebastian thought for a moment, he wasn't really feeling hungry and his throat had been bothering him since he woke up. "A black coffee would be fine. I don't need a menu, thank you." The girl nodded violently, and turned quickly almost running away.

Anger resurfaced in Sebastian as he turned back to Claude, though the man was still looking in the direction the waitress had gone.

"Yes, you're an idiot Sebastian." Claude resumed, as if there had been no break in their conversation at all. He turned back around to Sebastian.

"You're oblivious to everything. Including your own feelings."

Sebastian frowned, offended and confused. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Excuse me." A waiter had come up to them and placed a cup of coffee along with the pot on the table. Sebastian thanked him and took a small sip from it.

"It _means_ -" Claude began but was interrupted.

"Claude." Hannah warned giving him a look.

"No, he needs to hear this." Claude snapped.

"Hear _what_?" Sebastian insisted, confusion growing.

"You are gay Sebastian." Sebastian choked, having just taken a sip of the incredibly hot coffee and coughed violently.

"E-excuse me?" He demanded when he had caught his breath again.

"You are attracted to Adrian Crevan, and you need to stop denying it." Sebastian was appalled by the statement.

"I-I am _not_ -"

"Even _I_ noticed the way that waitress was looking at you and you didn't even give her the time of day."

" _What_? She wasn't looking at me in any sort of-"

"When was the last time you actually dated a girl, Sebastian?" Sebastian scrambled to come up with an answer- it had been quite some time he had been busy lately.

"I...I went out with Beast for a month, remember!?" Claude frowned.

"First, that was almost two years ago. Second, she was a girl you met at a circus themed nightclub, or strip club- whatever it was. And I keep telling you that was _not_ her real name."

"She had it legally changed!" Sebastian defended.

"No, she didn't. But if she actually did that's even more concerning."

"That doesn't-"

"Sebastian, I've known you for seventeen years. And in all my time knowing you, not once have you ever told me you thought a girl was attractive, or that wanted to date her. You've never been with a girl for more than two months and when a guy gets on your nerves he's all you can think and talk about. I've watched you and the way you act around Adrian. You like him and you know that you do. Just… think about it, okay? It's hard to watch you like this and it's getting on my nerves."

Sebastian frowned for a long time, unsure of what to say in response. But one thing occurred to him suddenly.

"Claude… are you… _worried_ about me?" Claude's usually expressionless face contorted with disgust.

"Why do I even bother?" He sighed, turning his attention back to his breakfast that was steadily getting cold.

"You _are_!" Sebastian confirmed, after he stared at Claude for another minute. Claude made a grunting noise and avoided eye contact. Even Hannah looked a bit surprised by Claude's sudden silence.

"You have a horrible way of showing love, did you know that Claude?" She teased nudging his shoulder.

Claude grunted again and poked at his breakfast. "Yeah, yeah shut up. Can we just talk about the wedding now?"

" _That's_ what you called me here for?" Sebastian asked, confused and sounding extremely reluctant.

Claude looked up then with a glare. "You did agree to be my best man, did you not?" Sebastian made a face as if he was already regretting agreeing.

"You did." Claude stated. "So, I don't actually need you to help with the planning. I just need you to come with me to a designer of mine so we can narrow down the final touches for the groomsmen's suits."

"And why can't Bard do that?" Sebastian questioned lazily. Claude gave him a look that sent a chill down his spine.

"Because I asked _you_ to be my best man. And you agreed."

"Okay, okay. It was a joke, calm down." Sebastian deflected- though it really wasn't.

He finished off the rest of his coffee in silence.

"Also," Hannah added. "At some point in the near future you are going to have to attend a few dance lessons with my maid of honor, all of our select friends are paired together and will be attending as well, so that all of you can perform a small dance at the wedding." Dance lessons? Sebastian didn't see why that was necessary, he had a natural talent- and not that he would brag about it- but he could probably instruct a class himself.

Claude, likely sensing his unwillingness quickly added, "It's a dance routine. With proper choreography- you have to go." Sebastian sighed. _Great_.

"Who's your maid of honor again, Hannah?" If he liked her at least it would be bearable and not seem so-

"Nina Hopkins."

Sebastian swore internally and put his head in his hands.

"The two of you are acquainted with her aren't you? She works with Vincent exclusively." Sebastian looked up from his palms only to see Claude remove his glasses with a stiff face, wipe them, and then place them back on the bridge of his nose. _Asshole_ , Sebastian cursed.

"We are...acquainted with her, yes. Though you may want to reconsider pairing us together."

Hannah raised a finely arched eyebrow. "And why is that?"

"We… well _she_ \- doesn't think very highly of me." Hannah smiled and chuckled lightly.

"Yes, well Nina is a bit strange in that way. She has certainly expressed her concern but that's the way she is with everyone, but I was under the impression that you didn't have any problems with her personally." Sebastian shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"No… I-I don't. It's just I don't that the two of us would-"

"So, _you_ don't mind then?" Hannah interrupted. Sebastian grimaced.

"No." He acquiesced. "I don't."

"Great!" Hannah chirped smiling brightly. "Claude will pass on that information to you, then. Let him know if any of the practice sessions conflict with your schedule."

Sebastian stayed silent for a moment, brewing in his defeat, looking back and forth between the demonically manipulative couple before him.

"Right…" He said slowly after a long moment had passed. "Well, I'd better be going." Sebastian took out his wallet and laid down a few bills for his coffee, then proceeded to get up from his seat.

Blood rushed to his head at the sudden movement and his balance was thrown off as a sudden dizziness overtook him. He managed to reach out a hand and steady himself on the chair as his vision regained color and the blackness that threatened to overtake him washed away.

"Sebastian…?" Claude asked, concern evident in his tone. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Sebastian nodded. "I just got up too fast or something." Claude frowned and studied his friend for a moment.

"You're sweating." He noted. Beads of sweat were seen clearly as they formed on Sebastian's forehead. Sebastian tentatively patted his forehead and felt the moisture there.

"It's just hot in the restaurant," He concluded although Claude's face remained skeptical so he continued. "Or you know... the coffee was hot and I drank it too quickly. Either way I'm fine."

Claude continued frowning but after a moment he sighed. "Fine. And I guess you want a ride to work later?"

"Work later?" Sebastian asked, confused. Claude narrowed his eyes.

"Yes. _Work. Later_. We have a shoot together at 5." Sebastian didn't remember that at all but at risk of being brutally murdered by Claude feigned recollection.

"Oh! Right, must have slipped my mind for a second. But yes, what's the point of _not_ giving me a ride if we have a shoot together." He smirked and held up his hand in farewell as he left the restaurant.

…

Sebastian was not feeling well. He was _really_ not feeling well.

He had been running around for the majority of the day taking care of odd ends and pieces. Meeting with a few directors, project managers, numerous trips to the bank, he had even gone to meet with Victoria and received the first draft of the January _Black_ _Desire_ magazine to look over. If there were any discrepancies on his page or in his personal information he had until next Thursday to point them out before they went to publishing.

And now he was entering his third hour of his partner photoshoot with Claude. It wasn't that posing with Claude was all that difficult, they were comfortable with each other and they had similar styles. The problem was that Sebastian had barely been able to keep down the rising nausea that kept flaring up at the worst times. This was the last thing he had to today and his schedule was clear for tomorrow so if he could just make it through today…

They probably had about an hour left until they were through for the day. Vincent liked his photoshoots to be thorough, with about 75 to 100 photos for each outfit, and they had just changed into the last one.

Although, the constant flash from the cameras was making Sebastian dizzy and his head was beginning to feel uncomfortably light.

" _Sebastian_?" Claude whispered, nudging him with his shoulder under the guise of changing poses.

Sebastian didn't answer, he was struggling desperately to retain his consciousness but his limbs suddenly felt heavy and weak and he felt so _tired_.

" _Are you okay_?" When Claude continued to not get any response he paused for a moment.

"Hey, hey-" He called to the photographers. They stopped snapping pictures. "Can you give us a minute? Just a quick break." They hesitated but as they were not actually being asked a question, nodded and began scrolling through their cameras to review their shots.

Claude turned his attention back to Sebastian, he had rested his head in his palms.

"Is there a problem?" Deidrich asked, walking up to the two. It seemed like he had gotten a promotion of sorts since he seemed to be overlooking the photo shoot rather than being the lead photographer as he usually was.

Claude ignored him, removing Sebastian's hands from his face and feeling his forehead. He removed his hand after a moment and scoffed.

"Sebastian has a fever."

"I do not." Sebastian immediately argued, whirling around to face Claude. Although in the process his dizziness increased tenfold as well as his nausea. He blanched and doubled over to steady himself.

Claude was not impressed. "You have a _fever_." He repeated.

"If you're not feeling well you should have said something sooner." Diedrich added, noticing the slight layer of sweat on Sebastian's skin.

"I-" Sebastian took a breath to still the sudden rush of nausea. "I'm fine." The two men beside him noticed that although he said that he still hadn't stood straight up.

"I haven't been sick in over ten years. And I have _never_ had a fever."

Claude glared at him. "That just means you don't know what it feels like to have one."

"I don't have fucking fever." Sebastian insisted.

Claude huffed. "Do you feel extremely hot at times and then extremely cold? Do you feel dizzy? Nauseous? Have a headache? Randomly feel faint? Body feels heavy and achy?"

Sebastian stayed stubbornly silent.

Claude rolled his eyes and turned to Diedrich.

"Do we have enough to end for the day? I'm gonna take him home."

"No. Let's finish the shoot." Sebastian spoke up, sounding like his teeth were clenched.

" _You're an idiot_." Claude snapped, raising his voice. "And if you vomit on me I'll tear you into shreds."

"We've got probably 35 for this scene..." Diedrich bit his lip and scratched the back of his head. "Vincent probably won't like it but I'll tell him Sebastian wasn't feeling well. You should definitely take him home." He paused and made a sour face. "Before he vomits anywhere near those clothes."

"Yeah." Claude agreed, making a similar face.

…

"I'm not sick…" Sebastian mumbled, snuggling deeper into the covers of his bed.

"Will you shut up?" Claude snapped, setting a pharmacy bag on the bedside table.

Sebastian had been giving him trouble ever since Claude managed to drag him into his car and up the stairs to his apartment. And even though he had run to the bathroom to vomit about 10 seconds after he entered the apartment the idiot was still rambling about not being sick. Claude had threatened to shove the thermometer down his throat and suffocate him with it if he hadn't gotten in his bed and laid down. And Claude's threats were not to be taken lightly.

"I got some cold medicine and a few cans of soup. You should drink a lot of water, fevers make you dehydrated. And actually sleep alright?"

Sebastian just stared blankly at him.

"Okay, I'm leaving."

"Wait!" Sebastian called out suddenly. Claude turned around, eyebrows raised.

"What?"

"Aren't you going to stay and make sure I don't choke to death on my own vomit?" Claude frowned.

"That's disgusting. And no I'm not staying. I thought you said you weren't sick, anyways."

"Well…" Truthfully Sebastian was incapable of caring for himself as he honestly didn't know what to do when you were sick, what if he needed to go to the hospital?

"You can call me if you need anything, I've got some important business stuff to do tonight." Sebastian tried to get his attention again but he was already leaving and the front door clicked shut behind him.

"Asshole." Sebastian muttered under his breath.

He sighed and rolled over. If this was what having a fever felt like he never wanted to have one again. Colds were much easier to deal with- a scratchy throat, a slight cough, runny nose. But this? He shivered as a chill ran through him. This was the worst. He was shivering while he was sweating because he was hot but at the same time freezing, it made no sense. His bones hurt and he felt as though he had just run a marathon even though he hadn't really moved in the past half hour.

He closed his eyes, hoping that maybe he would feel better after a nap.

* * *

 **Unprofessional! Sebastian is quickly becoming my favorite thing to write. Interesting to see him being so imperfect.**

 **Thanks for the reviews! I'm glad you guys are enjoying and actually think it's funny. I rarely write humor so it's nice to think I'm doing a good job. Also I think it's only right that the very tsun-tsun Sebastian falls ill with a fever in the most anime-esque way.**

 **Happy New Year! I know we're all happy to be done with 2016. Wishing you all the best of luck this year!**


	6. VI

A loud banging jarred Sebastian from his deep sleep. He stirred and listened for the noise again his heart racing from the sudden disturbance. His nose was stopped up and his throat was congested causing his breath to come out loud and laborious.

The sound repeated itself.

Sebastian realized that it was coming from the front door.

He groaned.

He sighed deeply and threw the covers off of him as he swung his legs out over the side of the bed. He sniffed heavily as his nose began to run, resulting in the sudden need to cough.

He was _definitely_ sick.

He took a minute to stand up, his body not appreciating the sudden movement since he had been laying in his bed for quite some time.

His muscles still ached and they groaned as he stood and took a few steps.

The knock repeated once more, and Sebastian noticed passively that whoever it was was knocking in a particular rhythm rather than a random pattern.

A series of coughs racked his body once again and he had to take a pause before he got to the door.

Sebastian unlocked and opened the door without bothering to look through the peephole although he regretted it immediately after.

"Ah, you're awake. Good."

Sebastian frowned, wiping his eyes as if it would somehow change the image in front of him.

"What the hell are you doing here, Adrian?" Sebastian managed to get out, his voice hoarse and mutilated.

Adrian grinned brightly.

"Claude expressed his concern for your health to me. Nobody has heard from you in a week apparently and he was beginning to worry you had died in your apartment."

Sebastian squinted at him, having some trouble understanding what he was saying.

"So… he thought I was dead and sent _you_?"

"Seems that way." Adrian stated airily.

" _Fuckin' asshole_." Sebastian muttered harshly under his breath. He turned around and hobbled back into his bed, not in the mood with Claude's shenanigans.

Adrian invited himself in locking the door behind him and rummaging around through Sebastian's fairly sized kitchen.

Sebastian could hear the distant thump of cabinets opening and closing followed by some miscellaneous clanging noises. He snuggled deeper under the covers not having enough energy to properly care.

When Sebastian awoke again he was greeted by a delicious scent and his empty stomach growled painfully.

He laid in bed for a moment, fully slipping into consciousness. As he laid there he heard the faint hum of the TV from the living room and the soft voices of whatever was on. He was confused for a moment, having no recollection of turning it on himself.

He sat up, trying to see what it was that was on when a soft _plop_ sounded next to him and something cool and wet landed on his hand.

He held it up- a damp cloth.

With a start he was reminded that Adrian had come into his apartment and his heart leapt around uncomfortably in his chest.

He got up slowly, struggling to not make a sound wondering if the silver haired man was still around or if he had left after Sebastian went to sleep. After all he had no way of knowing how long he had been sleeping.

He crept over to the doorway, silently cursing the door for being wide open, leaning around it and

Those brilliantly green eyes were staring right at him. He flinched, feeling stupid all of a sudden as a wave of embarrassment washed over him. He was intensely grateful that he was wearing a shirt and an old pair of sweatpants rather than his usual preference for pajamas which consisted of far less… clothing.

"I thought I heard you moving around in there." Adrian commented quietly, seeming to mutter to himself.

On the subject of clothes, Sebastian noticed that he was dressed much more comfortably than he had ever seen him. Although, to be fair, he _had_ mostly seen him for work purposes.

His hair was in a rather messy ponytail, though Sebastian didn't remember it being up when he had answered the door. He was wearing a slightly oversized grey knit sweater and black jeans with some organic looking holes in them.

Adrian's attention had gone back to the television in front of him and Sebastian suddenly felt intensely uncomfortable in his own home.

It was beginning to set in that Adrian was _taking care_ of him and _nursing_ him back to health.

"Uh-" Sebastian's voice cracked horribly and he cleared it before attempting to speak again.

"You… you know you don't actually have to stay and take care of me." Adrian's gaze slid over to him again and his expression was of pure amusement.

"Is that so?" Sebastian wasn't sure what that look was for so he immediately got defensive with a frown.

" _Yeah_. I'm not a child I can take care of myself." Adrian actually chuckled at that, a real chuckle rather than that unsettling way of giggling he had. It was deep and low in timbre and made Sebastian feel weird.

"Oh? And I suppose you were going to survive on water and crackers and whatever other stale food items you have in your cupboard?"

The belittling tone only served to increase Sebastian's defensiveness.

"I-"

Adrian kept talking as though he hadn't opened his mouth.

"I can only assume that's what the plan was when you ran out of the soup Claude bought you?"

"Well-"

"I think you should know that after around an hour of searching through your kitchen I found absolutely nothing not expired, stale, or above a snack. Everything in that soup over there I had to go and purchase."

Sebastian opened his mouth again but faltered as Adrian's words gained meaning in his mind.

"You…" He looked towards the kitchen again and sniffed, only noticing now that the delectable smell had gotten louder since he left his room. "Cooked something?"

"A stew. Help yourself." Adrian grinned.

Sebastian stood there looking at him for a moment unable to comprehend that _Adrian Crevan_ had just made food for him.

"By the way, your kitchen was a mess so I cleaned it as well."

 _And cleaned._

Sebastian opened his mouth, then closed it. Not really knowing what to say.

"...Thanks." He muttered, avoiding eye contact and heading into his kitchen, he felt Adrian's eyes on him as he moved.

He took down a bowl from the cabinet and opened the lid off the pot slowly simmering on the stove.

The stew smelled heavenly and looked just as good as it smelled and Sebastian's mouth nearly watered from the sudden onslaught of hunger.

He quickly got down a bowl and filled it to the brim. Barely remembering to grab a spoon before diving in. Silence stretched for a long moment permeated only by the clink of Sebastian's spoon against the bowl as he ate.

"Any good?" Adrian asked after a while, turning his attention from the TV back to the kitchen.

" _Yeah_ -" Sebastian answered, with far more vigor than he intended. He quickly corrected himself.

"I-I mean yeah it's good. I'm surprised you can actually cook." He said, with a questioning tone. Adrian looked like he hardly ate, let alone cooked for himself.

The silver haired man smiled wryly as if hearing those unspoken words.

"I don't have a personal chef. If a man my age doesn't know how to cook for himself he's in some serious trouble." Sebastian frowned a bit; _he_ certainly knew how to cook, but only simple meals not a full on _stew_ -he wasn't even sure where to begin. You couldn't just throw meat, vegetables, and potatoes in a pot with some broth and come out with _this_.

He grimaced, bitterly taking another spoon of soup into his mouth, Adrian had a way of making him feel inferior in every way.

Speaking of, Sebastian could still feel his eyes on him. He glanced up and found those startling green eyes looking directly at him. He looked away immediately, heart pounding in shock. Sebastian frowned deeper. _Any normal person would have looked away for modesty's sake at being caught staring. What the hell?_

 _Shit_ , why did _he_ look away? _He_ wasn't the one blatantly staring.

Suddenly annoyed, Sebastian picked up his bowl and retreated into his room. Before he enter it, however, Adrian suddenly spoke up.

"Hey." Sebastian sighed but turned around slowly with eyebrows raised.

"How are you feeling? Any better?" He thinks, sniffles a bit since his nose decided to suddenly start running, he doesn't feel all that much better but at least the headache he had been having through the last few days was nowhere to be found.

He shrugged.

Adrian narrowed his eyes and leaned down grabbing a grocery bag from beside him holding it up.

"Here, I got some medicine and cough drops." Sebastian frowned, biting his lip and sucking his teeth. He was really not liking how much he was being babied right now. But he at least the decency to accept it, he wasn't arrogant enough to turn down someone's genuine help even if doing so was stabbing needles into his pride.

He sighed, holding his bowl in one hand and walked over. He reached for the plastic bag, and in doing so brushed his fingers against Adrian's eliciting a surge of electricity through his hand and causing him to jerk back instinctively. Startled Sebastian happened to look up, but Adrian's eyes weren't on him instead they were focused on a point behind him and without much thought he turned to look.

The show that had been playing this entire time had transitioned into a sexual encounter between two of the characters. But they were… they were both…

The younger, blonde, male had been pressed into a door in a bedroom lit only by the moonlight. His partner, also male, who was was much taller than him and due to that the younger male was hoisted up by his thighs so that his legs wrapped around the older, dark haired, male's hips. Though the tv's volume was low- the silence in the room allowed the younger's pants and gasps to permeate the air as the older male attacked his neck with kisses and hungry licks. The two were moving suddenly, the younger let down, and they hurried to remove themselves of their clothing as they made their way to the bed, barely able to do so properly since their mouths refused to part from each other.

Sebastian's face had gone hot and even the tops of his ears were flaming. He turned away quickly, feeling a strange feeling well up inside of him that he was too nervous to actually place. But when he turned his eyes met those green ones that now had a strange light in them not so different from the older male's in the show. Sebastian felt his breath seize in his throat and vaguely wondered if hands were closing around it due to the sudden loss of breath.

He turned away slowly, his gaze attracted to Adrian's face like a magnet, and came to realize the bag he had been reaching for had fallen onto the ground. Hurriedly, he picked it up, and speed walked back to his room doing his absolute best to avoid eye contact and ignore the heavy gaze on him that elicited feelings he didn't want to address.

Sebastian woke up groggy and dazed. It was a few hours later, but wait- that couldn't be because it felt like he had been sleeping for a long time but it was still light outside.

He attempted to sit up in an effort to get a look at the clock resting on his side table but his head was spinning and he was suddenly intensely nauseous.

Giving up on that attempt he laid back down in his bed, forearm over his face to deflect the violent sunrays.

He had _definitely_ taken way too much of that cough medicine. It really wasn't his fault he had only noticed the directions written in extremely small print _after_ he downed three shots of the stuff. He had stuff to do he couldn't spend anymore time being sick. Unfortunately it seemed like his overeagerness had the adverse effect, and to be quite honest he had felt better before taking the medicine.

Groaning, Sebastian rolled away from the open blinds that were attacking him with the bright sun on the other side.

Though, with a start he noticed something. He was hard. Extremely so.

The contents of his dream flashed quickly through his mind and he froze, his blood suddenly rushing up to his face in the intense embarrassment that surfaced.

"Sebastian, are you awake in there?" Adrian's curious voice questioned, sounding like he was right outside the door. Sebastian's eyes went wide and he began to panic. Somehow he had already forgotten that the green eyed man was still at his house. Honestly how long was he planning to stay and even more importantly how long had Sebastian actually been sleeping?

All of that was rendered irrelevant as the door to his room began cracking open. In a panic he threw the covers over his head and turned his body as much as he could without making too much visible movement so his aching erection didn't accidentally say hello to anyone.

He struggled to control his breathing into one similar of someone sleeping and tried his best to relax as the door creaked slightly as it opened and the soft padding of feet led to his bedside.

Sebastian heard the muffled sound of Adrian's sigh and the comforter he had hurriedly pulled over his head was gently pulled back, his face now exposed. He hoped he was putting on a believable performance and Adrian actually believed that he was sleeping.

A cool hand was pressed gently to his forehead and it stayed there for a long moment. Adrian made a humming noise and turned his hand over on Sebastian's forehead feeling his temperature differently. He made a dissatisfied noise and Sebastian realized that probably actually _was_ pretty hot.

Adrian's hand lingered and Sebastian was cursing him in his head and wondering how long he would stand there staring at him.

Suddenly Adrian's hand moved, running gently over his cheek and grasping his jaw loosely.

Sebastian froze, hoping to god that his body would cooperate with him and not make any telling movements.

 _What the hell was Adrian doing?_ He wondered.

Sebastian's jaw was caressed and out of nowhere a smooth thumb was running along his bottom lip. The touch was tender and Sebastian wished his eyes were open so he could see the expression on Adrian's face and maybe even figure out why in the absolute hell this was happening.

Adrian grazed his the tip of his long fingernail over the lip, then applied pressure and pulled the lip down slightly in an extremely overly sensual way.

Sebastian's heart was pounding out of his chest and his carefully precise breathing went to the wind as his breath hitched at the unexpected turn on. As if he needed to be any more _turned on_.

Adrian had- apparently- noticed. He had likely felt the change of breath on his finger. He retracted immediately letting out a labored breath as he did as if he hadn't been breathing either.

Sebastian felt the air change as Adrian walked away, seemingly pacing the room muttering incoherently to himself.

He heard another deep sigh, and the slight creak of the door open and close. Dazed and confused he could only listen to the noises in the other room- vague shuffling, something clattering as it fell to the floor. A short curse and then silence. The silence persisted for a few moments until Sebastian suddenly heard his front door open and shut.

Had he left? Why so suddenly? Although these questions were thrown to the wind when his exceedingly hard erection overtook his thoughts. Now that he was alone _at least for now_ he had the liberty and freedom to take care of it.

In a rush, he threw the comforter off of his body, it had been getting seriously hot and now a light sheen of sweat covered his skin. Pulling the string to loosen his pajama pants he thrust his hand into them and grabbed hold of the thing that most needed his attention. He drew in a sharp breath as his warm hand made contact with the flesh there, almost immediately setting a rather fast rhythm as he had already been just _barely_ there when he had woken up. The slight slap of the bottom of his palm as it made contact with his abdomen permeated the room interchanged with soft grunts as Sebastian brought himself to release.

He came with a short cry as a sudden face flashed into his mind's eye as well as the ghost of touch left on his lips. He laid still on his bed for a while, panting from the aftermath and enjoying the sweet haze that covered his senses.

After a while, he sat up realizing that his mess had begun to dry onto his skin. Making a face, he stood up gingerly, stumbling his way to the bathroom and into the shower before the water had a chance to even properly warm.

Now that he was in the shower and the luke-warm water washed away his fatigue and dreariness the gravity of the situation pressed against their way into his thoughts without his consent.

Had he really just…?

 _He had._

To Adrian's face at the end…?

 _He had._

To the overly sensual thumb on his lips…?

 _He had._

Sebastian braced his hand against the wall of the shower as his other hand held his face in it, unbelieving.

Claude's words echoed in his head.

 _You are gay Sebastian._

 _I've watched you and the way you act around Adrian. You like him and you know that you do. Just… think about it, okay?_

He sighed and turned his face up to the shower head, closing his eyes against the stream.

Was he really…?

 _He was._

* * *

 **Hey! Sorry this took a bit longer than usual + not the longest. Wanted to take my time with the chapter and making sure I was getting across what I wanted to and actually proof read it like I _totally didn't do_ last chapter whoops. In any event! Thanks for keeping up with the story so far would love to hear any thoughts you guys have about it! **

**It's becoming my new favorite thing to write incapable! Sebastian. I mean can you just imagine him in canon universe needing to be _taken care of?_**

WHO ELSE IS EXCITED AS HELL FOR THE BOOK OF THE ATLANTIC MOVIE TO BE TRANSLATED? (aired in japan Jan 21) Undertaker's face IN COLOR AND ANIMATED I CANT HANDLE IT. If you don't read the manga you're missing out!


	7. VII

A week had passed in the blink of an eye. The temperature had taken a dive indicating that Los Angeles was well into Winter by now, and it was nearing Christmas- blinking lights, tinsel, and decorations bringing in the spirit of the season. Though, Sebastian wasn't really in the festive type of mood. Somehow he had managed to miss two weeks worth of work and was now paying the price by fitting in all the work he missed into a single week as many of the businesses he worked with were closing until next year and needed to get everything done before hand. So, really, he had two weeks to make up and two weeks to cram- all squeezed into one hectic schedule that was absolutely obliterating his sleep schedule. Not to mention he had been in a mood lately, not quite _moody_ and not quite _upset_ but horrendously unsettled. Constantly.

He hadn't seen Adrian since the man had left his apartment that afternoon and with his feelings being the way that they were, he had really wanted some kind of confirmation in his attraction. That it wasn't just him being horny from the extreme lack of sex life. Or momentary delusion brought on by his illness. Or an untimely heart disorder that he should probably go to the doctor about.

But although he had no visual confirmation from seeing the man face to face he couldn't deny the strange ache he felt every time he read the delicately flowing script left on a piece of paper he had found in his living room.

 ** _I've got to get going, as I have no valid excuse for missing work and William can only be so patient. My apologies for leaving so suddenly._**

 ** _Your fever seems to have gone down. I'm sure you'll be feeling healthy enough to get back to work soon. Missing any more than this to a common illness is unprofessional and I'd like to think better of you. Although you slept most of the time I was there, being your caretaker was an experience I won't soon forget._**

 ** _I look forward to seeing us in the Black Desire magazine in January._**

 ** _Sincerely, AC_**

Sebastian was quick to realize that the message had been written right before Adrian had left his apartment. Right after the… tender moment that they had. And surely that was how it read; overly polite,just enough teasing to make it seem natural, but with the ramblings of someone skirting around what they actually wanted to say. He _definitely_ wasn't reading too much into it. And he definitely hadn't spent hours analyzing every letter. _Definitely_.

To be completely honest, Sebastian had desperately wanted to see the type of face Adrian had made as he had touched him- was he smirking? Not making any expression at all? Smiling tenderly down at him? Was his expression wracked with longing?

It was eating him up inside and was all that filled his brain when he wasn't preoccupied. All he could think about at night… and he would be especially ashamed to admit that he had gotten off at night to each of those facial possibilities.

The almost unconscious action had intrigued him. Adrian- the man who seemed to always be so put together and purposeful. The man who seemed to be so hyperaware of every move his body made, he had to be anyways for him to have gotten so far in modelling, deciding what emotions to display to the camera through body movement- that was what he did best. But he had seemed to lose control of himself in that moment and Sebastian needed to know why.

So, it was pissing him off that the silver haired man hadn't been seen or spoken of even once in the past week. It was as if he had vanished off the face of the earth. All Sebastian wanted now was to see what kind of facial expression he would make when those green eyes gazed upon him again.

At the company holiday party he had discreetly mentioned Adrian and there was some mumbling that he had returned home for the holidays. Though, nobody knew when he was supposed to be back.

Sebastian had decided to take out his frustrations on Claude who, in his opinion, was largely to blame. If only he had been a good friend for once in his life and taken care of him- words to which Claude had responded with an eyeroll and a firm "get over it. I did my part." Sebastian realized with a scowl what exactly his friend had seen as "his part". The thought of Claude matchmaking was disturbing.

To make matters worse, the dancing training for Hannah and Claude's wedding had begun a few days prior and spending two and a half hours being in extremely close quarters with Nina was slowing driving him to insanity. The instructor gave them instruction, and Nina repeated the instruction- nitpicking Sebastian's every movement. "She said to the left not to the right you idiot!", "You're supposed to _lead_ with your left foot not just step with it.", "How are you supposed to be my partner if you aren't moving at the same time as me! For god's sake a 5 year old could probably handle this!" Though he supposed it was payback for all the times he had made fun of her odd preference in… people. Karma. It was a bitch.

And on top of everything he had a meeting with Black Desire tomorrow and he really was in no mood to deal with Victoria yelling at him again. At the very least he was glad he had actually checked his email in the first place and was actually aware that there _was_ a meeting. He shuddered to think of what would have happened had he not and actually missed the meeting. Victoria might have _actually_ killed him. She had been threatening to fire him for a long time but he was confident in his position as one of the top models.

But _Adrian was supposed to be there._ A fact that kept running through his mind as he laid on his couch, staring at the ceiling.

He finally had a moment to rest as to best of his knowledge, nothing was scheduled today. And if there actually was… he was busy. Relaxing.

Earlier he had been flipping through channels reading the show descriptions and looking for something in particular. As to what that _was_ he had convinced himself that he was simply looking for a new show to watch and _not_ whatever show it was that Adrian had been watching. But in either case he had no luck, he was more of a movie than a TV show person and as there were no decent movies on he had shut it off and taken to watching the ceiling.

He felt restless, as though he wanted to _do_ something. But he wasn't really sure what. He wanted to know, he wanted some answers and it wasn't like there was anyone he could ask. He really knew nothing about what being gay meant. Not that he had anything against it, he didn't feel like his life would be over if he actually _was_. But he wanted a convenient test or questionnaire that would tell him if he was or not so that way he didn't have to spend so much time _wondering_. Picking his brain for any little detail, any _moment_ he could pinpoint and state that for a fact that meant he was gay. Claude's words had been ringing in his head ever since he heard him and although he had a point there was something wrong about what he had said.

Sure, Sebastian wasn't as interested in the opposite sex as his friends were- especially considering that they all either had girlfriends, fiancees, or wives- but he wasn't _more_ interested in the same sex either. He had never even thought about another man in that way but he'd also never thought of _anyone_ in a clearly romantic way. When he was with Beast, _she_ had shown obvious interest and him and he had simply thought having sex with her might be worthwhile. Neither of them really thought anything of each other outside of the sex. Sebastian did it on a whim and Beast had apparently been trying to get over a one-sided love.

And all the other relationships he'd been in had been the same. Short, mostly sex and he thought little of its ending.

Sebastian was rattled out of his thoughts by the sound of a doorbell ringing. The doorbell he forgot he even had. Everyone who visited him knocked on the door.

With a huff and exaggerated sigh at having to get up, he drifted over to the door.

He had at least learned from his mistakes and checked the peephole before opening the door.

Well… that was new.

He opened the door, confusion painting his features.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, leaning against the door frame.

"Well, that's no way to greet your boss." Vincent greeted with a smirk.

Sebastian's confusion only increased.

"I've learned the best way to get you somewhere on time was to come and pick you up personally."

"Uh…"

"Been awhile since we last talked, hasn't it? Here I am thinking that we're friends." Sebastian frowned, and straightened. What Vincent was saying made sense but there was always something remotely threatening in the way he spoke and Sebastian had no idea why he had popped up on his doorstep out of the blue. That wasn't like him.

"...We are." Sebastian said, finally. Only after carefully searching Vincent's face for any clues. "Sorry, you don't usually do anything spontaneous like this so it's a little… confusing."

"Ah, my apologies." The older man stated, scratching the back of his neck almost awkwardly.

"I just really wanted to talk to you about something in particular that's been bothering me." He explained, looking up once again.

"What is it?" Sebastian questioned. Vincent smiled and gestured behind him.

"Not here. Let's go for coffee." Sebastian made a face, dreading actually having to leave his apartment.

Vincent, noting his discontent, grinned.

"So, I'm telling you, as your _boss_ … get in my car."

* * *

The cafe they went to was down the street, which was strange because Sebastian didn't think he'd ever even seen it in the 6 years he's lived there. In any event it was a small building, with a warm feel and comforting vibe likely due to the elderly couple that managed it. Vincent had sat them down at a table by the window, it was cloudy outside and very cold and if Sebastian had bothered to think about it he might have wondered if Vincent prefered this type of weather due to his time in England.

"Remember when we were first getting to know each other and everyone thought we were brothers?" The older man said out of the blue. Sebastian glanced at him but he was still looking out of the window.

"Yeah. We really don't look that much alike, though."

Vincent chuckled. "We certainly do not. But I've never had a brother so it was a nice thought."

"Me neither. Although Claude is as much of a brother as I'm going to get."

"Sometimes we have to settle for things beyond our control." Vincent responded, seeming like he was talking more to himself than to Sebastian.

"Yeah."

They both sat in contemplative silence, each lost in thought. One of the staff members brings over their coffee after a while, breaking the atmosphere.

"So, what was bothering you?" Sebastian asks, realizing that they somehow got off that topic.

Vincent pauses from taking a sip of his coffee. "Oh right- well I couldn't help but notice your...lack of focus in the last month or so. Really the last two months. To be quite honest with you I wasn't sure if I wanted to address that as your boss or as your friend but I suppose given the nature of things I'll have to go with the latter."

Sebastian swallowed thickly, reading something heavy in those hazel eyes but not knowing what exactly it was.

"So, I assume that this lack of focus is due to our recent addition? Adrian that is?" Sebastian frowned and nibbled on his lip, suddenly feeling extremely uncomfortable and avoided eye contact.

"What, did Claude tell you that?" Vincent smiled and let out a small breathy note of amusement from his nose.

"No, Claude didn't say anything about it. But your behavior has been rather obvious, especially since we've all known you for so long. Your work ethic is awful but you're usually at least professional once you've begun your work but that hasn't been the case recently." Sebastian was quiet for a long moment, mulling over what exactly was being said to him. He felt itchy, like he wanted to crawl out of his skin from the unexpected and unfiltered scrutiny. Was his work ethic really that bad?

"So… what exactly is bothering you?" He asked, meeting Vincent's eyes once again. The older man gave him a knowing look paired with a slight smirk and that feeling of underlying hostility had suddenly returned.

"What do you feel towards Adrian exactly?" The question unnerved Sebastian and he was so shocked that he found himself unable to answer- not even to make up a convincing lie. Vincent's expression morphed again and Sebastian suddenly felt as though he were being interrogated by a particularly untraditional cop.

He somehow felt like there was a misunderstanding and though he wasn't sure exactly what it was he spoke up anyways. "Vincent I know that the two of you had a… thing or whatever it was." The older man looked visibly shocked.

"How on earth would you know that?"

"Uh... Diedrich told me."

Vincent's expression relaxed and he leaned back in his chair nodding his head absentmindedly. "I should have known…" He mumbled.

"Well in any event, that makes this a lot easier." Sebastian furrowed his brows in confusion once more.

"What easier?"

"I just wanted to tell you that if you're conflicted because of me you don't need to be. The two of us are friends. Always have been." Sebastian's eyebrows furrowed further as his confusion mounted.

"Friends? But Diedrich made it sound like-"

" _Yes_. We did things friends don't do but we weren't _dating_. It's an impossible task to be friends with someone like him and not have any less than decent thoughts." The two went quiet and Sebastian felt a flush creep up his ears as embarrassment overtook him.

"Ah…" Vincent sighed after a while. "Glad we finally got that out of the way, I was dreading having this conversation."

"What, why?"

"Well… I don't often talk about my time in college. Being married with a child and all. It's somehow… embarrassing to bring it up?" Sebastian froze, jaw dropping.

Vincent frowned.

"What? Is it that unbelievable that I can be embarrassed about something?" He chuckled lightly. "I _am_ a human you know."

"No. You were just… do you know that your embarrassed facial expressions are vaguely threatening?"

Vincent smirked. "I _have_ been told that before."

"I thought you were gonna fight me for him." Sebastian choked out.

" _Would_ you fight me for him?" Vincent shot back, catching Sebastian completely off guard. He floundered for a moment, his mouth opening and closing as he struggled to form a response.

"W-why would I?" He managed, it sounded weak even to him. Vincent regarded him carefully seemingly studying his face for the words he wouldn't say. After a moment he sighed, picking up his cup of coffee and swirling it around as it had likely begun to settle.

"Don't wait too long to come a conclusion, Sebastian. Sometimes we think too much about things and try to find meaning in everything when sometimes it's better to act first and think about it later." Sebastian sighed as well, staring deeply into his empty cup as though it would magically give him his answer.

* * *

For once, Sebastian was actually on time to a meeting. And he suspected that the scrutiny Vincent had given him yesterday had made him a bit more conscious of himself. Victoria had been surprised but merely gave him a raise of a finely arched eyebrow before she sat down. Everyone was chatting idly but Sebastian didn't feel much up for small talk. His leg was moving a mile a minute under the table as wave after wave of anxiety rolled over him. Adrian hadn't arrived yet and once again Sebastian was beginning to believe the talk he had with Vincent the day before had affected him more than he originally thought. He had spent all night testing his resolve, thinking of _something_ , _anything_ he could do to come to some conclusion about how Adrian felt about him. _His_ feelings of course we're clear. Clear enough that all of his friends had noticed. But now he felt like the thirteen year old girl Claude had called him a few weeks ago, having a crush and wondering desperately if his feelings were reciprocated. It was disgusting. But there was really nothing he could do about it.

"Alright, all we all set? Everyone here?" The media manager asked. Everyone looked around, surveying faces.

"Uh… I don't think Mr. Crevan is here." One of the photographers spoke up.

Victoria frowned, analyzing the room a second time.

"Hmph." She breathed, not sounding pleased in the slightest. "Perhaps he got the schedule mixed up. No matter. I'll get in touch with his manager after and relay the important information."

"Alright so-" Sebastian tuned out what they were saying as disappointment sunk in. As the minutes dragged on, the faint hope that Adrian would just show up late faded away and soon enough the meeting was over without him ever meeting those emerald eyes.

He collected the papers that had been handed out and walked dazedly out of the office. A few people attempted to talk to him, they were a good team and he would usually go out to lunch with some of them after meetings. Though, today he just really wasn't in the mood and brushed off the invitations with barely coherent excuses.

But as he opened the door to leave he was met with the resistance of someone opening it from the other side and a high pitched shriek. Sebastian attempted opening the door again, hoping that the person had moved out of the way and that they wouldn't have to do some stupid back and forth dance to go through the door.

Luckily they had. Unfortunately it wasn't exactly someone wanted to see at the moment.

"Oh! Sebastian!" The high pitched voice cried out. "You nearly gave me a heart attack!" Sebastian groaned internally, as he was met with Grell Sutcliffe.

"It's just not fair to be suddenly assaulted with so much attractiveness! I need to prepare! And I'm not nearly dressed well enough!" Sebastian had already begun to tune them out, imagining he was literally anywhere else.

"Wait… has the meeting ended already? Ugh! I knew I shouldn't have taken the time to straighten my hair! Oh he's going to be so mad at me! This is why I told him Will should do this!"

"Wait, what?" Sebastian had picked up words like "he" and "Will" and suddenly began to wonder why Grell was here in the first place.

Grell's rambling paused, and a look of distress came to their face.

"I was _supposed_ to sit in on the meeting for Adrian. But I guess I've missed it now." Sebastian's mind was working a mile a minute some faint feeling of hope taking over.

"Why?" He asked, with a sense of urgency. Grell gave him a funny look.

"Well... because he told me he wasn't feeling very well today." _What?_

"When's the last time you saw him?" Grell pursed their lips and thought for a moment.

"I think I last saw him when Will and I picked him up from the airport? Why?" Sebastian's heart was nearly pounding out of his chest.

"Um…" He struggled to think of an excuse that would get him what he wanted. "Don't you think someone should go and check on him? If he isn't feeling well?"

"Well, I was planning on heading over to his flat after the meeting…" Grell trailed off looking distraught again.

"That you missed." Sebastian finished. Grell's head cocked and their eyes narrowed.

Sebastian continued regardless. "Since I sat for the meeting," he didn't add in that he had been completely unfocused and tuned most of it out. "I could go in your place and check on him."

"Why would you want to do that? From what I've seen, you don't seem to like him all that much." Sebastian groaned internally, Grell wasn't as stupid as he thought.

He scratched the back of his head nervously.

"Well, he did come and take care of me for a few days while I was sick, I can at least return the favor." Grell eyed him suspiciously before a mischievous smirk suddenly formed on their face.

"Fine. But what do I get out of this?"

"What do _you_ get out of this?" Sebastian repeated, frowning.

" _Yes_. What do _I,_ " and at this Grell took a step forward, suddenly way too close for comfort. "get out of this?"

Sebastian rolled his eyes as it clicked in his head. He gently pushed Grell backwards and a comfortable distance away.

"Fine. I'll take you to lunch-"

"Dinner." Grell interjected.

Sebastian huffed.

"Alright, _dinner_. But on a day, time, and restaurant of _my_ choice."

Grell pouted but acquiesced with a wide grin.

"Right then, I'm holding you to that. Give me something to write with I'll give you the address and room number."

* * *

Now that Sebastian was standing outside of what Grell had called Adrian's "flat" he was seriously beginning to wonder if this was a good idea. He should have known that Adrian would be staying _here,_ one of the grandest penthouses in Los Angeles; widely known for their celebrity guests. And as he entered through the spindle glass doors, greeted by not one but two bellhops asking about his stay, and then encountered the burly security guards; he was beginning to understand why Grell had emphasized that he memorize the 5 digit password necessary to be allowed into the elevator that was specific for each of the 23 floors. He could practically feel the multitude of eyes questioning his intentions as he punched in the code into the keypad. It was understandable, surely they had a lot of crazed fans hoping to get a peak at their idol and putting in random codes in the hope that they would manage to stumble across the right one that would allow them up.

He let out a sigh of relief as the keypad showed a green light and the elevator doors opened.

He had tried to ignore the furious anxiety that had been causing his heart to palpitate and his palms to sweat but standing in an elevator going up to Adrian's Load Angeles residence with nothing but his thoughts and tacky elevator music didn't leave much room for distraction. To be quite honest he _felt_ like a crazed fangirl; making up a story and bribing someone to give him Adrian's address. It was all a bit too ridiculous.

But here he was. Doing it anyways.

He was shocked out of his thoughts as the elevator dinged and the doors slid open revealing a bright hallway with a door at the end.

He was really doing this.

Sebastian stepped forward with a hint of hesitation. Taking deep breaths to calm the racing of his heart and thinking of something intelligent to say when those eyes met his again.

He raised his hand to knock but almost fell backwards with shock as the door suddenly opened and someone stumbled out with a laugh. They nearly ran into him before they turned and came to a stop with a sound of surprise.

"Oh! Jesus Christ! You scared the shit out of me! What the fuck…" Sebastian was in complete shock looking at the shorter man in front of him clutching his chest and doubling over. His hair was a mess, strawberry blonde and black hair sticking up in all sorts of directions, his glasses were crooked on his face, sweater falling off one shoulder, pants unzipped and sliding off slender hips, one shoe had the laces untied. He looked like he had just thrown on all his clothes in a hurry.

After a moment the man straightened, looking at Sebastian curiously.

"Uh… Sebastian… right?" Sebastian could do little but nod slowly.

The man smiled awkwardly.

"Ronald… in case you-um… don't remember." He shifted a bit, visibly uncomfortable. Though as he did, his sweater fell even further down his arm and a purplish mark became visible on his ivory skin. Sebastian averted his eyes from the mark as if he had been slapped.

"Um… well I was actually kind of in a hurry… if you don't… mind…" Ronald mumbled, making an awkward gesture towards the elevator. Sebastian numbly stepped to the side, allowing him past.

He waited a minute, listening to the elevator doors open and close before looking up.

The door was left open.

Nausea rolled in the pit of Sebastian's stomach as he stepped forward. He gently rapped his fist against the door. His mind was racing thinking of all the implications and possibilities that couldn't possibly be true.

"Ron?" A deeply accented voice called from inside. "Did you forget something?"

And before Sebastian could even debate his options and how quickly he thought he could get to the elevator; the man he had been wanting to see was before him.

The telltale scent of sex wafted out of the doorway as it opened and Adrian stepped out, pulling a white shirt over his head. He was wearing sweatpants, an incredibly odd sight if Sebastian had stopped to think about it.

The man's eyes widened as he saw Sebastian standing there and the smirk that he had walked out with disappeared.

That was definitely _not_ kind of face he had been longing to see.

"Oh." His hair, a complete mess, was hastily gathered up into a ponytail that was hardly any less messy.

"Uh… Sebastian." A throat clear as his gravely morning voice added fuel to his accent sending a tingle down Sebastian's body.

"What are you… doing here?" He asked, leaning against the doorframe casually. Sebastian wasn't sure what kind of face he was making. He wasn't sure of a lot of things. And while his brain worked to find some kind of rational explanation for what he had just seen- for what he was _seeing_ right in front of him. He just couldn't shake the anger that was rising up from the numbness and shock.

He felt like an idiot. A complete and total fool. How long had he been going around like a lovesick teenage girl? How long had his mind been overrun with _delusions_ of what was happening? How bad had it gotten that he felt himself still trying to dent the oh so obvious truth spelled out right in front of him? Adrian wasn't _interested_ in him. He was probably messing with him, as revenge for the rude things Sebastian had said when they first met. All of this had been some clever attempt to seduce him.

Anger bubbled over into a blinding rage and before Sebastian could even fully register what he was doing, his arm was suddenly moving and his hand connected with a hard surface before he could even ball it into a fist. The sound resounded and seemed to echo loudly in the small hallway.

Sebastian's mouth dropped open in surprise as his vision suddenly focused and he was looking at the quickly reddening mark on Adrian's cheek. Adrian, himself, seemed shocked; slowly bringing up a hand and cupping his jaw. Sebastian retracted the hand that was being held in the air and stared at it in disbelief.

That was the first time he'd ever hit someone.

 **Oh! So close to 5,000 words but just a little short. I've been excited for this chapter _for so long_. I'm really glad with how it turned out. Hope I took you on a bit of an emotional rollercoaster! Felt like I had something important to say but I can't remember so- see you guys next chapter. Which might be even more of a rollercoaster than this. ;) **


	8. VIII

_Mortification_ : a feeling of humiliation or shame, as through some injury to one's pride or self-respect.

Also known as what Sebastian had been feeling for 7 days straight now. 168 hours. 10,080 minutes. 604,800 seconds.

He was pretty sure he had rarely felt truly embarrassed in his entire life but even so those few times barely held a candle to the feeling he had now. And even his embarrassment had nothing on how _stupid_ he felt, as if he suddenly lost half of his IQ points.

 _Why the fuck had he hit a_ _ **model**_ _in the face?_

In the moment he had done it he hadn't been thinking, it was if his mind had emptied of rational thought until there was only anger left. But at the harsh sound of hand meeting face and the way Adrian's head had snapped to the side and his eyes widened in shock, rational thought returned- a thick feeling of dread had filled him and black sludge had seeped into his heart and suffocated him. His palm stung and it wasn't until he raised his gaze from the offending limb and saw how Adrian's face had already reddened into vaguely finger-like shapes that he realized his mistake. He saw Adrian clench his jaw and the shift in his eyes from shock to anger.

It was jarring as Sebastian realized he had never seen anything other than carefree cheerfulness in the man's green eyes. He could hear his heart beat erratically in his ears as that fiery gaze settled on him.

"I-" He had tried. But Adrian talked right over him as if he hadn't opened his mouth.

"I think you should leave, Sebastian." His voice was low, kept even so as not to betray emotion. The slap had knocked him off balance so he was no longer leaning against the door, instead standing up straight with his arms crossed across his middle.

"But I-" He had tried again.

Adrian's eyes had narrowed then.

"I think you should _leave_ , Sebastian." He repeated, voice less evenly controlled than before.

Still, Sebastian didn't want to just turn and walk away. There was a nagging feeling at the back of his mind that was telling him if he were to leave right now then he might not ever be able to talk to Adrian again.

"I'm-"

" _Sebastian_." Adrian had snapped, voice rising as the calm pretense slipped away even further. " _Leave._ _ **Now**_."

He hadn't been able to say anything back to that. He wanted to apologize, but the only way he could explain his actions was to confess he feelings and he wasn't sure that would be received very well with those circumstances. So, he had acquiesced with a sigh and walked towards the elevator, flinching when the door behind him slammed shut.

And as he got home he realized with an increasing sense of dread that they had a group interview for an online web series in two days. The last group task they had to do until the debut of the clothing line in November. And even more importantly, Sebastian was sure he didn't have any other tasks with Adrian- only a photoshoot with Ciel, Alois, and Claude and a few more fittings. Black Desire would be printed off soon after a major delay, something about the printing house catching on fire- at least that was the least he understood from the meeting. There was a chance Adrian might be there at the same time as him to pick up a copy but if he was trying to avoid him he might send William or Grell in his place.

However, there was something he had severely overlooked. Something he had realized as Adrian walked into the studio the interview was being held in two days later.

He was late, and of course he was because even Sebastian had gotten there before him, everyone was already getting touch up hair and makeup done. Grell and William followed closely in behind him. William had a severely unimpressed look on his face and though they were too far away to hear it sounded like Grell was pestering him about something. And as Adrian turned his head to respond, Sebastian's heart palpitated violently.

Bruises.

He really couldn't believe he had hit him hard enough to leave _bruises_. To his relief they were mostly on the top of his cheekbone and temple and a gross looking yellowish-green rather than deep purple so he couldn't have hit him _that_ hard.

Unfortunately, he wasn't the only one who had taken notice. Vincent, who had been talking with one of the staff members, turned towards the noise and a sound of surprise escaped his lips before he sped over to Adrian.

The group was close enough now that Sebastian, and everyone else for that matter, could now hear them clearly.

"Adrian! What the hell happened to your face?!" Vincent demanded. Adrian let out a breath of laughter and shrugged his shoulders.

"A rather unfortunate stroke of clumsiness."

Sebastian watched as William pushed his glasses up on his face with a pen and a huff.

"I am failing to understand how you, _a grown man_ , can walk directly into a pole." _Wait...what?_

Adrian let out another chuckle, "What can I say? I received a rather interesting message and lost track of where I was walking."

Vincent's mouth dropped open and he hooked his arm around Adrian's shoulders. He leaned in conspiratorially but didn't lower his voice.

"You'd better not still be getting sexts from underage young men! An old man like you can go to jail for stuff like that you know!"

"How scandalous!" Grell squealed from behind the two.

William looked even more unimpressed. "I surely hope that was not the case, it would do poorly for your image. Not to mention how distasteful it would be. In any event, I don't understand why you were out walking around if you weren't feeling well in the first place."

Sebastian realized now that him feeling unwell was just a lie, but it seemed like he would have at least told his manager what he was up to in case it got leaked to the media or something. But why was he lying about how he got the bruises? It's not like Sebastian would get in trouble for it, probably just get yelled at by Vincent and have everyone call him an idiot for doing something so stupid.

The group had begun to walk again and Adrian greeted the makeup artist that approached him before seating himself in a chair across the rest of the group, greeting everyone with a quick wave.

"I thought getting some fresh air might help. And I feel much better now so perhaps it did." William made another displeased sound but said nothing else.

"You're lucky the bruising isn't that bad. If it were blue it would be nearly impossible to cover with your skin tone." The makeup artist chastised, seemingly unphased by who she was speaking to.

She had gripped his chin and turned his face to the side to inspect the coloration more closely. However, the new angle drew his gaze directly to Sebastian's and they briefly made eye contact. Sebastian's mouth had opened without him realizing, his mind desperate to apologize. Though before he could form the words those chartreuse eyes turned up, looking at the makeup artist instead.

So he was being ignored now. That familiar feeling of dread settled deep within him again, and he had never wanted a do-over so desperately.

Sebastian had been hoping for an opportunity to speak to him before the interview started but because he had arrived so late, by the time hair and makeup had finished the crew was rushing everyone onto the stage and Vincent was seated on the long couch between him and Adrian, with Claude on his other side. The women, Angelina and Nina were seated to their left in individual chairs.

The interviewer, a slender girl, with the posture and height to be a model herself introduced herself as Angela in a soft voice and shook everyone's hands. She carefully tucked her deep purple dress, from a designer that Sebastian recognized, under herself as she sat down across from the group. She carefully tucked a piece of pastel violet hair behind her ear as the producer began to count down.

"3...2...1...Rolling."

"Hello everyone, I'm Angela Blanc from Fashion 101 and today we have some very special guests joining us in the studio today." The woman stated with a smile.

"A man with a special eye for talent, the owner of Funtom Modelling, Vincent Phantomhive!" Vincent grinned and raised a hand in greeting. "He is joining us today to talk about his new project launching this fall. And surely by now you've spotted the _Undertaker_ himself- Adrian Crevan next to him! That's right everyone, the epitome of London fashion himself- here in our studio!"

"Oh, you flatter me." Adrian drawled, with a smirk.

"Flattery, Mr. Crevan? I think not." Angela laughed, a tinkly sound like wind chimes blowing in the wind. "Your career history speaks volumes, very impressive, very impressive indeed."

She turned her attention back to Vincent. "So, Vincent, who else are we joined with today?"

"Well, we are joined with the real brains and brawn of the project…" He gestured, over towards the two women.

"Nina Hopkins the lead designer, and the incredibly talented seamstress Angelina Dalles." The two raised their hands respectively.

"And some of my top models: Alois Trancy, Ciel Phantomhive, Claude Faustus, and Sebastian Michaelis." Vincent addressed each of them from left to right.

Angela nodded, smiling widely. "Right, right. And Ciel Phantomhive is your son, correct?"

"Pride and joy." Vincent grinned, glancing down the couch towards Ciel.

"So, tell us all about the project."

"Sure, so it's a men's winter fashion line. But we really wanted to focus on the diversity of the clothing. That men of every age and height could look good in these clothes, which is why we specifically chose these five. They're all so different in style, height, and age that it perfectly embodies what we were going for."

"Certainly, this is a group of diverse men." Angela agreed.

"And really, it was just going to be these four at first, then Adrian contacted me and I managed to convince him to join in."

"Oh? Adrian contacted you?" Angela asked, jumping at the tiny bit of information. Sebastian was beginning to wonder what the point of even being here was, he hadn't even spoken a word yet and the attention kept shifting back to Adrian.

"Yes, we're old friends really." Vincent informed. "We both attended Weston College together."

"Oh, that's interesting." Angela commented. "And I suppose since we're on the subject I'm forced to ask Mr. Crevan a question."

"Oh?" Adrian responded.

Angela suddenly looked a bit embarrassed. "Well, it's the question everyone is always dying to know… Is there any special someone for you? It's quite suspicious that such an attractive and successful man like yourself wouldn't even have any romance rumors."

Adrian let out one of those deep chuckles. "Unfortunately, I'm just a lonely old man."

Angela just nodded slowly, seemingly unsurprised with the statement. Sebastian figured that was probably the same thing he said to all interviewers who asked him the question. Besides he wasn't even sure how long Adrian had been seeing Ronald. Not to mention even he had no idea what Alois' relationship with Ronald was. He vaguely hoped that Ronald wasn't cheating on him, the blonde was insufferable but even he didn't deserve that.

Bored, Sebastian zoned out for a while as Angela turned the attention to Ciel asking him what it was like to work with his father in the business. Now that he was thinking about it, he wondered what sort of friendship Adrian had with Vincent. Vincent had said that they were just friends but how close were they? Would Adrian talk to Vincent about his flings and his relationships? From the way Vincent had spoke it sounded like Adrian was an unattainable object for him, but did that mean that he no longer had any feelings for him or that he had just given up?

Claude nudged his foot.

"Sebastian?"

Angela was looking directly at him with a fairly amused look on her face.

"Sorry, what was that?" He asked, confused. She must have asked him something.

She let out that tinny laugh again. "I was asking about your other work. For Black Desire, correct?"

"Ah, yes. I model for them."

"I heard from a little birdy that you might be featuring alongside Mr. Crevan in the next issue. Anything to say to that?"

Sebastian swallowed thickly, immediately casting a glance towards the silver haired man, but his attention was on the interviewer and if he felt Sebastian's gaze on him he didn't show it.

"Well… I'm afraid I'm not allowed to disclose any information about that at this time. But I can just say that everyone should be very excited for the new issue." Angela narrowed her eyes and she smiled, casting a glance towards Adrian to search his face for a change in expression.

"And what was it like working with Adrian? On this project, I mean." Sebastian swore in his head. Why was he the one who had to answer this? Why couldn't she ask Alois? He would unashamedly list all the ways that Adrian was perfect and how he couldn't wait to work with him again.

He cleared his throat a bit before speaking.

"Well… um…" Shit why was he drawing a complete blank right now. Generic. Just go generic! "It's not everyday that you get a European supermodel working and modelling with you. It was a humbling experience and really brings you back down to Earth when you realize that supermodels are people too and they do the same thing that you do, they're just better at it." He forced a laugh, and prayed that the heat he felt in his face was less visible under the makeup.

Angela accepted his answer, commenting shortly on it before finally focusing her attention on Nina and Angela. Sebastian zoned out again, this time on purpose, wishing that the floor would swallow him.

After the interview was over -an hour and a half later- Sebastian was mentally exhausted. And as he went through all the formalities, speaking to Angela for a few minutes and then thanking the rest of the crew it occurred to him that he might be able to catch Adrian alone but as he looked around he realized he didn't see silver hair anywhere.

He spotted Claude out of the corner of his eye and rushed over to him.

"Hey, Claude!" He seemed to be reading something off his phone and didn't look up but nodded his head a bit to show that he heard.

"Have you seen Adrian? Where did he go?"

"I think he left already? Probably had something to do right after this. Man sure stays busy, hm." Claude answered airily, typing something quickly.

Sebastian looked around the room again to be sure. "He left!? Ugh... _shit_."

Claude looked up from his phone then, giving Sebastian a weird look.

"Did something happen between you two?" He asked, slipping his phone into his back pocket.

Sebastian's throat clenched in panic. "Uh- no...um I just wanted to ask...him something."

"You sure? He looked like he was avoiding you. He's never not said a word to you if you were in the same room together- but today...nothing." There was really no point in lying to Claude he always saw through Sebastian, but even still how could he explain that he…

Claude frowned at Sebastian's silence.

"What did you do?" He snapped. Sebastian flinched, cursing Claude's extreme skill in intuition.

"I-I didn't-" Sebastian tried, but the way he couldn't make eye contact gave him away.

Claude was silent for a moment.

"You _didn't_." He suddenly said, sounding extremely disappointed.

He had figured it out.

"I didn't mean to! It was just-"

"Sebastian you are _such a fucking idiot_." Claude was whispering now, harshly. "What kind of idiot hits another model in the face?! And _bruises_ really Sebastian? _Bruises?_ "

"I _know_ okay?!" Sebastian whispered back.

"What happened?!"

Sebastian huffed and looked around to make sure nobody around them was listening.

"Grell told me he wasn't feeling well so I wanted to repay the favor and see if there was anything I could do but when I got to his door _Ronald_ stepped out looking all dishevelled and had _hickies_ and then when Adrian came out he was just standing there _smirking_ and then he saw me and I just- I…" Sebastian sighed unable to finish. There was no excuse for what he had done. Hell, kicking Adrian in the balls would have been more acceptable.

"Ronald?" Claude repeated, sounding bewildered.

" _Yeah_. Alois' friend the one with the club." Sebastian snarled, just thinking of the guy put a bad taste in his mouth.

"I _know_ that." Claude snapped. "I just didn't think that was his type. I mean if you look at Vincent, his type's gotta be more like…" Claude had been rambling, talking to himself mostly but stopped as he saw the look on Sebastian's face.

He sighed. "You really like him, don't you?"

"Shut up." Sebastian hissed.

"...I can't believe you hit a supermodel in the face."

" _I know. Stop saying it."_

By sheer stroke of luck there was some complication, or error, or _whatever_ with one of the group photoshoots so everyone was called back in on _Valentine's day_ of all days to reshoot. And even though it seemed like it was luck, not a single person was happy with the development. Vincent had the courtesy to call everyone in super early so they could start at seven in the morning and hopefully be done by noon, leaving the rest of the day open for Valentine's day festivities. But "courtesy" wasn't really what Sebastian felt as he nursed his third cup of coffee between a setup. He hadn't gotten up before the sun was up since his highschool days and actually having to _work_ with how tired he felt was putting him in an even worse mood. He had always disliked the sentiment of Valentine's day, too many couples, too many hearts, too much pink and red. So he usually found some hot girl in a club to spend the night with. How about _that_ for sentimentality?

But today he didn't feel like doing that either.

It had been weeks since he had last seen Adrian, at that group interview, and with the separation he had time for his feelings to settle. The whole thing was a foggy haze, he had gotten carried away with his feelings for the first time and it hadn't ended well. He wished his rejection could have gone a bit better but there wasn't anything he could do about it. So for the past few weeks he had thrown himself more into his work, accepting a few more offers to keep himself busier and he felt good about it.

He was sure he had accepted the rejection and was over whatever _infatuation_ he had but the way his heart dropped at the sight of the man laughing and talking with Alois said otherwise. Bitterly, he wondered if Alois would still be laughing and talking to him like that if he knew Adrian was sleeping with Ronald.

The hours passed by quietly, with only the interjections from Vincent about their positions and Diedrich's directions to the photographers. Everyone was tired, simply following directions as well as they could so they could get through the shots as fast as possible.

Sebastian still wanted to apologize but the mood in the room felt awkward… stifling even. He wasn't good at dealing with awkward. Nor did he really want to bring up anything from that situation. He still had no idea of what he could say as an acceptable explanation now. The last thing he wanted to do was make it more awkward by suddenly telling Adrian that at a point in time he had had feelings for him. He felt like the opportunity window to apologize had passed. Adrian still hadn't said a word him, so it was clear that he didn't want anything more to do with Sebastian either.

It was going on 11:30 when they got to the last outfit change, which was mostly due to the overly long breakfast break they took. Meaning they would be finishing closer to one if they were lucky, two if they weren't.

Vincent immediately got to work positioning them as soon as they were all dressed.

"Alois, go on the end there and sit… lean your head back on Claude's leg… and then put your hand on your leg and the other on the ground… just like that. Good. And then Ciel, you're on the other end and cross your arms, good. And Adrian if you'll rest your elbow on Sebastian's shoulder?" There was a second of hesitation before a warm appendage rested lightly on his shoulder and Sebastian was assaulted by Adrian's presence. His familiar smell, the warmth emanating from his body, and the slight tickle from a stray hair.

"Yeah… and then lean your head slightly towards him and tilt… perfect. Alright." Vincent motioned to Diedrich and the camera shutters started flashing once more.

Sebastian cursed whatever god was out there for his horrible luck. He was getting flashbacks from their photoshoot for Black Desire, the last time Adrian had been so agonizingly close to him. Somehow, even though Sebastian couldn't stand him back then, they had felt closer than they did now.

They finished a little after two- much to everyone's irritation.

"Damn." Claude hissed, as he hurriedly slipped his own shoes back on.

"What?" Sebastian asked as he fixed his hair in a mirror.

"I made a reservation at three for Hannah and I at that new Japanese restaurant that opened downtown. At this rate we're going to be late." He checked his watch again with a huff.

"You actually got a reservation there?" Ciel asked, overhearing the conversation. "I've heard it's been booked since before it even opened."

"It has. I made the reservation five months ago." Claude responded, pulling out his phone and putting it to his ear.

"Are you serious?" Alois interjected. " _Five months ago_?"

"Yes." Claude answered, collecting his things. "Hello? Yes, I'm on my way right now." He was speaking into the phone now as he made for the exit. He lifted his hand in farewell before the door shut behind him.

"So, what are you doing with Lizzie, Ciel?" Alois asked, tapping furiously on his phone.

Ciel threw on his coat, "She wanted to go to the Hollywood cheesecake factory, and then go see a movie at the Chinese Theatre, so that's what we're doing."

"What about you, Sebastian?" Alois asked, when he noticed the older man listening.

"Oh, probably nothing." Alois made a disgusted face.

"What a waste."

"Don't you usually go clubbing or something?" Ciel spoke up, an inch of curiosity in his voice.

Sebastian shrugged. "I'm tired. Not really in the mood. What about you Alois?" He vaguely wondered if he was doing something with Ronald.

Alois beamed, looking up from his phone. " _I_ have got a hot date with the very tall, and attractive, and _totally into me_ Charles Phipps."

"You say that like we know who you're talking about." Ciel commented with a scowl.

"You do!" Alois squealed. "He was that super-hottie at Reapers who I talked to like _all_ night. Not that _talking_ is the only thing that happened but…" He trailed off, winking suggestively. _So was he not seeing Ronald, then?_ Sebastian wondered.

"Ew, Alois." Ciel commented, scrunching up his face is disgust.

Alois squealed and bounded over, latching onto him and causing the other to ferociously push him away.

"Aw, Ciel if you're jealous just say so! I would be delighted to fuck you!"

" _Alo-is_ ," Ciel struggled using the whole of his palm to push the blonde's face away. " _Get off of me!_ " The blonde acquiesced after a few moments, giggling hysterically.

Ciel shuddered as though the very thought sent a shiver up his spine.

"Just kidding, of course! _I'd be more delighted to be fucked_ _ **by**_ _you!_ " Once again, Sebastian was glad he was generally ignored by the blonde.

"Alois!" Ciel snapped.

"Yeah, yeah," Alois giggled for while more. "Anyways what's your dad doing?"

"He's going to my mother's grave. Same as always." The morbid topic calmed Alois down, but the blonde simply made a noise in the back of his throat before throwing his gaze over to the group of men on the other side of the room. Vincent was checking the photos over with Diedrich and Adrian seemed to be having some sort of conversation with the two.

"Hey!" Alois called, trying to get their attention. They looked over.

"You got any plans for today, Adrian?" He yelled. Sebastian nearly felt his heart skip a beat, he wasn't really sure he wanted to hear the answer.

"Ah, no. I'll likely settle in and get some work done."

"That's so _boring_!" Alois whined. "And you Diedrich? What are you doing?" The man seemed to blanch at the sudden attention to his love life and Sebastian didn't miss the quick glance the man shot towards Vincent.

"I'm… not sure. I was thinking that I should bring some flowers to my mother."

Alois made another disgusted face, and turned around. "Is everyone over the age of twenty _this_ boring?"

Sebastian sighed, turning off the tv. He had been searching for three hours now for something good to watch. All that were on were cheesy romance movies and Valentine's day themed episodes of shows he didn't watch.

He was doing a lot of staring at the ceiling these days.

He was beginning to wish that he had stopped for a bottle of brandy on the way home. But just the idea of being visually assaulted with any more hearts, red roses, and pink boxes of chocolate was enough to give him a migraine.

At this point he was beginning to wish he had just gone out. He didn't feel like it but maybe he would meet someone that would change his mind.

A structured knock on his front door shook him from his thoughts.

He frowned, who on Earth would be knocking on his door right now? It could be Claude, since he had gone to an early dinner but he highly doubted it. Claude rarely came over before texting him.

Curious, he pulled himself off the couch and mosied over to the door. He peaked out the peephole but saw nothing but blackness. Frowning, he hesitantly opened the door.

Adrian's hand retracted from the door as it opened. He was wearing a cap, an especially strange sight, and a black turtleneck. In his arms he was holding a bouquet of flowers and an oversized heart shaped box that likely contained chocolates.

Sebastian wasn't sure he was even breathing at his point, his mind struggling and failing to make sense of what he seeing.

"A-Adrian...w-wha…" He sputtered, utterly shocked.

* * *

 **Sorry to leave it on such a cliffhanger? I've been writing this story in every moment of freetime I've had for the past 4 days and somehow managed to write almost 9,000 words? Anyways, I really wanted to post today and the chapter really was getting too long so I decided to cut it in half. So that means double update! Will be posting again tomorrow!**

 **Also this chapter was meant to be done around Valentines day... oops.**

 **Oh and for some reason this chapter I was really feeling Adrian being very similar to Jihae from Dandelion ~Wishes brought to you . Great dating sim. Cat boys. Bunny boys. Chickens.**


	9. IX

_You didn't choose the smut, **the smut chose you**. Anyways, second time writing smut, first time gay smut so hopefully it's alright. I've got a love/hate relationship with it in general._

* * *

"Sorry, I wasn't sure you'd open the door if you saw me out here."

Sebastian's face contorted in confusion. "What?"

"Do you mind if I come in?" Adrian asked.

Sebastian's body went on auto-pilot and opened the door wider without his consent. What exactly was happening? Was he still breathing, was there enough oxygen going to his brain?

He shut the door once Adrian walked inside, locking it, and tried to take deep breaths before turning around to face whatever was coming.

When he turned around he found that those green eyes were already trained on him, waiting.

"W-why did you bring flowers?" Was all he managed to ask.

"They're for you."

"And...And the chocolates?"

"Also for you. I wanted you to take them as an apology." Adrian was speaking so calmly, so softly, it was making Sebastian feel like he was going insane.

"An apology…?" He repeated, completely lost. "For what?"

"For…" He paused, breaking their eye contact and glancing anywhere else in the room. "For… Well I'm not sure really. I just felt that I needed to apologize." Sebastian frowned and they stood in silence for a moment while his brain caught up.

"Is...Is this about what happened at your apartment or… condo or whatever?" The memory of what exactly had happened filled Sebastian with an anger he thought he had gotten over already.

"Because if _so_ , I don't understand why you feel that _you_ need to apologize. I hit you across the face and it was stupid, _ridiculously_ stupid. So _I'm_ sorry." His eyes caught sight of the flowers and heart shaped box. "But you don't need to do whatever the hell it is you think you're doing because you feel _sorry_ for me. I'm not a girl; I don't want _flowers_ , I don't want _chocolate_. It's my fault that I misunderstood things anyways."

Adrian remained silent, watching him with unreadable eyes.

"So, you can take those back and give them to someone who might actually appreciate them. I'm sure you have better people to be with on Valentine's day anyways." Adrian still said nothing, and Sebastian was suddenly growing embarrassed and agitated at his unwavering gaze.

"Well? Are you going to just stand there?" Sebastian demanded.

"...I was avoiding you, and that was a mistake on my part so I thought I should let you say whatever you wanted before I said anything. I think each of us made too many assumptions of the other and many of our mistakes stemmed from that." Adrian finally said, but his words made little sense.

"What are you talking about?"

"You assume I'm apologizing because of what you more or less walked in on. Yes or no?"

"What else would you even be apologizing for?" A wave of panic flooded over him as he realized Adrian could have discovered his feelings and was apologizing for leading him on.

"In truth, I'm sorry about that as well. But I'm actually apologizing for causing the misunderstanding."

Sebastian could heart his heartbeat in his ears again.

"W-What is that supposed to mean? Can you just say whatever it is you're trying to say instead of being so vague?"

Adrian nodded and took a few careful steps forward.

"I am sorry that you had to come across that situation at all. I feel that it's given you some sort of weird idea about the sort of person I am. There's nothing going on between Ron... _Ronald_ and myself. We slept together, yes, I wouldn't lie to your face about that. But that was the only time, and I'm not very interested in doing it again."

"...Okay." Was all Sebastian could say. He still wasn't understanding. Why did Adrian care what he thought of him to this degree?

"I was really quite ashamed of my behavior so I was a bit embarrassed about facing you. Although, I realized that you probably thought that I was still furious about you hitting me. I was only angry about that for a day or so. I mean, really, who hits a model in the face? Not to mention I bruise especially easily."

"I'm sorry." Sebastian interjected, wanting to say it properly.

Adrian smiled. "Yes, I know. I was moreso angry at myself though in that moment. I deserved to be hit, I'm not mad at you for that."

"But really how idiotic of me." He sighed, looking down at his shoes. "Try to get over someone by sleeping with someone else and then get immediately caught by that same someone." His gaze lifted again and he looked at Sebastian with a small smile and a look of anguish that immediately had his heart pounding thunderously loud.

He opened his mouth, and then closed it a few times wordlessly as all breath left him.

"See, because I promised them that I would keep things strictly professional between us since they seemed to be more annoyed by my presence than anyone I'd ever met."

Adrian was talking about him. He knew it in his head but the rest of him was refusing such a ridiculous thing. _Of course he wasn't talking about you, why would he be?_

"And then he goes and gets a fever, and his own best friend asks you to take care of him. And you know you should refuse and that it's a bad idea but some part of you can't help wanting to get to know him a little better. If annoyance really is the only thing he feels around you." Adrian had begun to walk towards him, that same expression on his face- looking like the most attractive kicked puppy he'd ever seen.

"And then you realize that he looks most attractive with a blush on his cheeks. And you can't help but…" He was close now, almost as close as he was at the photoshoot earlier. He reached up a hand and his forefinger crooked under his chin as his thumb traced around Sebastian's mouth and ran across his bottom lip, before he applied pressure in an exact replica of what he had done almost two months ago. Then he retracted.

Sebastian was completely dumbstruck, his entire body felt hot as if Adrian lit him on fire. He tried unsuccessfully to form words and Adrian waited patiently with an almost inquisitive look in his eyes.

"I-I… I don't…" Adrian was really too close for him to be able to focus. He had been wondering what kind of face Adrian had made when he had done that same action all that time ago and the answer was so much more than he had ever hoped for.

He tried once again. "... I'm not…"

"Not what?" Adrian supplied.

"Gay...I'm not…" Sebastian whispered. Adrian grinned then, a beautiful expression that revealed the small crows feet near his eyes.

"That's alright. You don't have to be. You just tell me if you want to stop." And then without any other warning, Adrian's mouth was on his and a cool hand was cradling his face. Sebastian's eyes widened in surprise but the scene of Adrian that close to his face was too startling so he closed his eyes immediately.

It was a soft kiss, more than a peck but not intrusive. As he pulled away he laid a few more light pecks on his lips before pulling away completely. Though his hand stayed, reaching up into his hair as Adrian gazed at him with cloudy eyes.

"Mm." He hummed, placing another peck on his lips. "I've been wanting to do that ever since I saw that cigarette in your mouth the day we met."

At the admission it became abundantly clear to Sebastian that Adrian was _not_ messing with him. He had misunderstood. Now the man he had spent way too much time in the last few months thinking about was kissing him and was _interested_ and Sebastian was standing there like a limp noodle.

Fueled by all the pent up sexual frustration he had for the man in front of him, _he_ moved this time, pulling Adrian towards him by the back of neck.

He could feel Adrian smirk into their kiss- before his hands gripped Sebastian's ass, pulling them closer at the waist and rolled his hips. If he didn't have a grip on Adrian's neck Sebastian might have fallen over at the semi-hard arousal that rubbed against his crotch from the movement.

Although nothing stopped the gasp he let out. Adrian took advantage of the opening and suddenly his tongue was in Sebastian's mouth. He could taste the mint on Adrian's tongue as it pressed against his own. He grasped harder at Adrian's nape, his fingers pulling at the base of the hair strands there.

The reaction was almost instantaneous. Adrian growled from deep within his throat and Sebastian suddenly found his back pressed to the door. Adrian's hands were _seriously_ gripping his ass now and he took Sebastian's bottom lip between his teeth, watching with fierce eyes as he let go and then kissing him deeply enough to leave his lungs crying for oxygen. Adrian's legs were in between his and they were pressed chest to chest, the heat causing a light sweat to form on Sebastian's skin. Adrian's hands moved from his ass up his sides, his nimble fingers poking underneath Sebastian's shirt.

After a while Adrian seemed to be in need of oxygen himself and retracted, his thumbs rubbing small circles in Sebastian's hips.

The two were close enough that they were practically sharing the same air.

"Would you mind if we...Moved this somewhere more comfortable?" Adrian asked after a few moment, gesturing with his eyes teasingly at the door Sebastian was leaning against.

Sebastian was breathing far too heavily to produce a verbal answer so he just nodded and led Adrian into his bedroom. Now that things had calmed down momentarily he was acutely aware of two things that he hadn't previously. Firstly, he felt like he may need to see a doctor about how hard his heart was beating. He had never felt so turned on by just making out, he usually took so much longer- something he had attributed to his low libido but… he had _such_ a raging hard on it almost hurt. Which was the second thing he was suddenly aware of.

He took a seat on his bed, watching Adrian as he removed his shoes and carefully placed his cap on the nearest surface. Then, those lust glazed eyes were directed at him. He maintained that eye contact as he approached Sebastian, planting his arms on the bed to his left and right. He leaned in for another kiss and Sebastian leaned up to meet him.

This time Sebastian licked across Adrian's lip until given entry and then it was Sebastian who was licking into Adrian's mouth. The older man pressed harder in Sebastian, forcing his head down until it met with the soft comforter on his bed.

The kissing was good, sending pleasant shocks down his body as Adrian's tongue rubbed completely against his own. But he needed something else, _more_ , some friction and attention to his throbbing cock.

As if reading his mind, Adrian shifted his balance to his left side reaching around with his other hand to grope at Sebastian's erection. Sebastian moaned into their kiss at the unexpected touch and bucked up slightly to encourage it.

Apparently growing tired of all the clothing restrictions, Adrian slid his fingers under Sebastian's shirt lifting it up and over his body; taking a moment after to rid himself of his own. They each took a moment to look appreciatively at the body before them. They had each already seen each other stripped to their underwear- they just hadn't been able to ogle properly. They met eyes after a few seconds and Adrian let out what sounded like a frustrated sigh. He leaned down to recapture Sebastian's lips briefly, nipping at the bottom lip before pressing a kiss to Sebastian's jaw.

Then his neck again, no doubt leaving even more hickies.

An unpleasant memory surfaced at the thought but Sebastian was distracted by the nip to his collarbone, and then the hand rubbing against his chest. Then the soft kiss pressed to a nipple, he gasped out loud at the sudden sensation, and even louder as it was enveloped in a wet heat. Adrian reached up with another hand and rolled the neglected nipped between his fingers, pinching at the same time he sucked on the other.

Sebastian wasn't loud in bed. He really wasn't. But he couldn't keep the soft gasps and _mewls_ from coming out of his mouth. He hadn't ever considered men's nipples as a form of stimulation but, _oh_ , was he learning a lot about human anatomy right now.

Nonetheless, what he needed right now was not _teasing_ he was hard enough before all of this and now the restricting fabric of his jeans, and the slightly too small _boxer briefs_ were practically strangling his dick.

"A-Adrian." Sebastian panted, thrusting his hips up a bit to get the point across without saying it.

Adrian grinned and kissed his chest again before licking a stripe downwards. Nimble fingers unclasped the button of the killer jeans and unzipped them, sliding them off Sebastian's hips, down his legs, and tossing them somewhere behind him on the floor. And before Sebastian could even react, his underwear were suddenly joining them and his achingly hard cock was released and exposed to the chilly air.

He breathed a sigh of relief that was instantly cut short when a strangled moan ripped from his throat.

Adrian had fit all of him into his mouth for a nanosecond, smirking up at him as if nothing had happened at all but the sudden wet chill on his leaking cock couldn't lie. Sebastian glared and Adrian grinned even wider, dropping to his knees on to the side of the bed, tugging Sebastian's hips closer to him.

Sebastian sat up, spreading his legs, more than thankful for the attention to be where he needed it the most.

Adrian grasped the throbbing cock in front of him with his hand, running a closed fist up and down the length a few times. Then, licked a strip from the base to the tip, tonguing the slit, and lapping away the precum. Sebastian let out a shuddering sigh, and Adrian looked up now with a devious look in his eye- the sultry sort of look that had given him a hard-on at the Black Desire photoshoot- and winked before going down on him for real.

Sebastian groaned lowly, and reached a hand out, tangling his fingers in Adrian's hair for purchase. He chuckled around the cock in his mouth and the rumbling that came from the depths of his throat forced Sebastian's grip to tighten.

Naturally he had had some idea of what he was in for when Adrian had toyed with his nipples but the way the tip of his tongue _flicked_ at the large vein to the underside of his cock and the way his _hand_ was squeezing the base slightly with each suck was practically making Sebastian's toes curl up with pleasure.

" _Ahh_ …" The sharp sound of air being sucked between teeth, and a breathy sigh.

Obviously Sebastian had gotten blowjobs before, pretty good ones as well, but this was just...this was _just_ …

Teeth lightly grazed the skin, followed by a hard press of tongue to the leaking slit. Sebastian cried out, thrusting forwards harshly as spots danced across his vision. Somewhere in the sudden ringing of his ears he heard Adrian gag slightly, but warmth continued to envelop his cock as he released into that warm cavern.

He panted for a while, vaguely aware of Adrian pulling off of him and sitting down on the bed next to him, pressing small little kisses to his jaw.

"That…" He took in a deep breath, exhaled, and tried again. "That was really, _really_ good. Shit." Adrian chuckled breathily, reaching a up a hand to soothe Sebastian, tenderly running his fingers through the black hair.

"I believe that men give the best blow jobs as they know exactly what feels good."

Sebastian sighed again, finally catching his breath. "You may have a point with that." He turned his head, seeing Adrian smiling softly at him and couldn't resist leaning in for a kiss. Adrian obliged, licking inside of Sebastian's mouth and he moaned lowly at the taste of himself in the other's mouth.

Adrian groaned, loudly. He broke their kiss leaving an obscene trail of saliva between their mouths, causing Sebastian to open his eyes in confusion.

"What?" He panted out.

Adrian looked almost pained. "Do you want me? Answer me honestly, yes or no. If we go much further than this I'm not sure I'll be able to stop." And Sebastian barely caught the words hastily whispered after,

" _You're too bloody hot_."

"Of course I want you." Sebastian answered immediately, not wanting any other kind of misunderstanding between them ever again. "Why would I be here with you doing _this_ if I didn't?"

Adrian's eyes glittered with amusement, and he took Sebastian's hand, placing it on his nearly rock solid arousal. "No, I meant do you want _me_?"

Sebastian was shocked. Sure, he expected he would have to arrive at this crossroads sooner rather than later but he hadn't given it much thought since he just assumed he would top anyways.

"Y-you mean you want to… I thought I would…" He trailed off, at a complete loss for words.

Adrian giggled lowly, and nipped at Sebastian's lip. "I don't bottom for anyone but Vincent." A wave of irritation hit him at that and he scowled.

"Yeah, can you _not_ mention Vincent right now?" Adrian kissed him again, withdrawing slowly.

"Apologies." He mumbled.

"So you want to…?" Sebastian repeated, playing with the idea in his mind.

"Mhm. If you're okay with it." Adrian mumbled, some more burying his face in Sebastian's neck and gently pressing kisses and nibbles there.

"I-" He sighed in gentle pleasure as Adrian particularly hard at a place right below his ear. "I've never done that before."

"I'll be gentle. I promise. Only if you want to, though."

Sebastian stayed silent for a moment, thinking, and absentmindedly ran his hand through Adrian's silken hair.

"And you're not going to budge on letting me…?" Adrian licked a long stripe up the side of his neck causing a hitch in Sebastian's breath.

"No."

Sebastian sighed again. He hadn't really imagined that he would be losing his anal virginity any time in his life but he wasn't necessarily opposed to it. Just a little nervous.

"Alright."

"Alright?" Adrian repeated, looking him in the eyes now.

"Yes." Sebastian corrected.

"Alright." Adrian grinned. "Do you have lubrication? Condoms?"

Sebastian nodded, still in a daze from what he had just agreed to, and pointed towards the top drawer of his bedside table.

Adrian followed his finger and kissed him once more before standing up and going over to the table. He rummaged around for a minute, before picking out what he was looking for, setting them on the bed before looking at the expectant Sebastian waiting for direction.

"Sit up properly on the bed." Adrian gestured to the headboard of the bed. Sebastian followed his instructions while Adrian rid himself of the pants that Sebastian just realized he was still wearing. His eyes were trained on the outline of the cock hidden under the fabrics and his eyes widened as Adrian climbed out of his underwear. That was… that was going to…

Adrian must have noticed the nervous look on his face because he repeated what he had said earlier, "I'll be gentle."

There was something morbidly ironic in how reversed his role was now.

Adrian climbed onto the bed, positioning his knees to Sebastian's sides, leaning forward and stabilizing himself with one hand while the other went down to the now semi-hard cock.

The fact that it was growing hard again seemed to tickle Adrian and he let out one of his signature high pitched _hee, hee_ 's.

"We'll test out just how _many_ times you can go another time." And his mouth was back on Sebastian's before he could even comment.

Though Adrian's hand on him felt nice he also knew the older man hadn't even touched himself this entire time. If Sebastian was nearly in agony before he could hardly imagine how frustrated Adrian was at this point but he was being _so_ attentive. The lease he could do was help out a little, right? Or maybe he just really wanted to feel Adrian's cock in his hand. He didn't really know which was the truth, nor did he care.

Adrian gasped softly in his mouth at the sudden touch but then he was wrapping his hand over Sebastian's and their lengths were pressed firmly together with their joint stroking movements.

Sebastian moaned lowly and Adrian groaned with him. They were both panting lightly, releasing and needing too much breath to continue kissing as deeply as they had and settling for panting into each others mouths as they looked into each other's eyes.

Though, as Sebastian had expected, Adrian hadn't cum at all yet and was much more impatient with the mediocre touch. He let go of Sebastian's hand and his own hand left Sebastian's now hard cock.

Sebastian nearly whined at the loss of contact and body warmth as Adrian pulled away, reaching for the condom and lube.

His heart began to beat quickly upon seeing them.

Adrian poured a good amount into his hand, closing the bottle and setting it back down. He nudged Sebastian's legs open; and cool, slick fingers slid over his ass, brushing over his anus. It sent another jolt of nervousness through him and he struggled to squirm.

Adrian was leaning over him again, fingers tracing around the entrance there.

"Remember, just tell me if you want to stop. I'm not forcing you to do anything you don't want to." He whispered, fingers adding just a bit of pressure every few seconds.

He was nervous. But he wanted this. Wanted it even more now that he had wrapped his hand around Adrian's cock, he wanted that inside of him.

"Shut up." Sebastian snapped, breathlessly. "Just- Just _do it_ already." Adrian smirked down at him, leaning down to kiss him as a single digit applied far more pressure, breaching his ring of resistance.

The feeling was foreign- a stretching, a slight burn. He gasped a little as the finger pushed in further. Adrian thrusted the finger shallowly, and Sebastian grasped his dick, tugging on it slowly in an attempt to distract himself from how strange the sensation felt.

Adrian noticed and added another finger slowly, scissoring the digits slowly once they were in down to the knuckle. He worked like that for a while checking with Sebastian every now and then to make sure everything felt alright. And it did, for the most part, just the feeling of that area being stretched and prodded at felt weird.

Though when Adrian got to four fingers and thrusted them a bit rougher into the body beneath him, Sebastian felt a sudden flash of pleasure, arching off the bed slightly.

"Ah, good. That makes this easier." Adrian mumbled, repeatedly striking that same place with as many fingers as he could. Sebastian was moaning now, each time those fingers brushed up against that place inside of him making him feel as though he was having a mini dry orgasm each time.

Adrian grunted. "Mm. I'll rim you next time. Can't wait to have you fall apart on my tongue again. Fuck." The words went straight to Sebastian's cock. He hadn't realized Adrian would be such a dirty talker in bed but he must have been holding back.

Adrian roughly fucked the fingers into him a few more times before pulling them out, leaving Sebastian with an emptiness he hadn't realized he could feel. He focused on controlling his breathing as he once again heard the pop of the lube lid, the slick noises that followed, and the crinkle of the condom being opened.

Warmth was pressed against him once again as Adrian crawled on top of him. His long hair fell over his shoulder like a satin curtain and the moonlight reflected off the strands making his entire silhouette glow. Sebastian vaguely wished he had a camera near him to capture just how god damn beautiful Adrian looked above him.

"Last chance to change your mind." Adrian mumbled, looking seriously into Sebastian's eyes.

Sebastian rolled his eyes at the coddling and leaned up a bit to recapture those lips. Adrian entertained him for a moment, his fingers shallowly thrusting in and out of his entrance, but they were soon removed.

"Take a deep breath." He whispered against Sebastian's mouth. The younger did as he was told and then suddenly the air he had just taken in was forced out as a breathy gasp clawed it's way out of his throat.

Adrian had entered him.

His hands fisted the sheets at the uncomfortable stretch and Adrian peppered kisses and small encouragements against his jaw. He could feel an almost burning heat as Adrian groaned deeply as his cock penetrated Sebastian deeper, slowly pushing in inch by inch until he was finally completely seated.

Adrian's hand had found Sebastian's cock again, expertly squeezing as he moved his hand up and applying just the right amount of pressure into the slit. It was helping to distract from the burn, but Sebastian supposed that was the entire point.

Eventually the burn decreased enough that the stretch began to feel almost pleasant and he let out a groan as that small pleasure added in with the ministrations to his cock.

Adrian seemed to take that as a sign that he was relaxed enough and began to move.

Sebastian was almost embarrassed at the noises he was making from all the new sensations. It felt good now, unlike anything he'd experienced.

He could feel, rather than see Adrian's smirk and then the man was letting go of his dick and hiking one of his legs around his own waist.

The new position put Adrian deeper inside of him and he barely had time to appreciate it before Adrian pulled almost all the way out and then he was nearly shouting when Adrian thrusted roughly into him in rapid succession.

"Mmm." Adrian groaned, switching between slow and fast thrusting. "So fucking tight for me." And his voice had gone down several octaves, doing a weird thing to Sebastian's heart.

"Wanted to fuck you ever since I gave you that erection on set. Knew I could have you falling apart for me…" He paused as he aimed a few thrusts roughly against Sebastian's prostate. Sending sparks behind the younger's closed eyelids.

" _Just like this_." Adrian's hand returned to Sebastian's abandoned cock pumping it roughly in time with his thrusts.

Sebastian shuddered with pleasure, raising his arms up to grip at Adrian's shoulders, wanting him impossibly closer. His body was sliding up the bed, and he was distantly aware that his headboard was knocking into the wall but he couldn't give less of a fuck about his neighbors right now.

"Adrian… _ahh, fuck_ … I'm close. _Shit_." And he was, _very_ close if the tightening of stomach muscles and tugging feeling at the base of his cock were anything to go by.

Adrian seemed to be just as close and wordlessly, he took hold of Sebastian's hips hitting his prostate and taking special care to drag to tip of his cock across it before he retracted, repeated the same motion over and over again.

Sebastian yelled out, the sound ripping from his throat as he came violently, causing his spine to arch out inhumanly against Adrian's chest. The sudden tightening in his body must have thrown Adrian over the edge as well as the silver haired man moaned lowly, thrusting shallowly before stilling.

Even through the condom Sebastian could feel the sudden warmth of his release and groaned at how much it turned him on.

Adria nearly collapsed on top of him and the two laid panting, basking in the pleasant afterglow for a few moments. Sebastian absentmindedly running his hand through Adrian's silken hair while the older man pressed light kisses to Sebastian's forehead.

After a while, when their breathing had settled, Adrian carefully pulled out. Sebastian blearily opened his eyes at the sudden discomfort and watched as Adrian pulled off the used condom, crawling off the bed and disappearing into his bathroom.

He pulled himself up on the bed, hearing the sound of water being turned on and then a few seconds later Adrian was climbing back into the bed, wiping a damp towel across Sebastian's semen covered midsection and briefly down to his ass likely wiping away excess lube.

Seemingly too tired to care about much else, Adrian dropped the rag off the side of the bed and settled in next to Sebastian, pressing a sleepy kiss to his mouth.

Sebastian barely responded except for a small smile, and Adrian was beginning to think he had fallen asleep already.

"Adrian?" A tired voice questioned.

"Yes?" Adrian shifted, snuggling up to body besides him and pulling the covers across their naked bodies. Now that they had calmed down the temperature of the room had become chilly.

"I've been meaning to ask…" He sighed sleepily and leaned into the warmth beside him. "Why do people call you The Undertaker? It's weird. Makes me think of that wrestler."

Adrian chuckled and the sound reverberated in his chest making Sebastian feel even more comfortable.

"Well… it's because I _knock them dead_ with my inhumanly good looks." He guffawed then, slapping the covers and jostling Sebastian around.

"That's... _fucking stupid_." Sebastian snarled with disgust, but he was too tired to speak anymore so he shut his eyes drifting off almost immediately to sleep.

* * *

 **Hope you enjoyed! Also I'm laughing so hard at Sebastian saying he's not gay. Reminds me of that song. "I'm not gay" by JPee look it up on youtube, absolutely hilarious. Anyways should be finishing this story very soon. I've got a few extras planned though. ;)**


	10. X

**Um. For any that saw that super weird thing I did earlier this week... I'm sorry. I'm an idiot. LOL. Enjoy the last chapter.**

* * *

The day had finally come.

Sebastian felt another wave of secondhand nervousness as he redid his tie for the third time in the past ten minutes.

Everyone around him was rushing about, Claude going around checking and then rechecking that everyone was ready. As his _slightly taller_ long term friend made his way over, making an expression full of disdain Sebastian had never felt the weight of their friendship as much as he did then. He almost wanted to hug him.

He refrained, of course.

"Sebastian can you _please_ , stop messing with your damn tie and _help me_?"

Heaven must have fallen into ruin and Hell must have frozen over.

 _Claude Faustus_ , his long term and closest friend, was asking _Sebastian_ for _help._

And also, at the same time, this same closest, long term, best friend, was getting _married_ today.

Both of these facts hit Sebastian like a wave of scalding hot water and he was stunned into silence.

A silence that annoyed the already aggravated Claude even further.

"Sebastian!" He snapped. "If you're not going to be helpful get out of the way!" Sebastian glanced over towards the mirror he was standing in front of and then the rest of the relatively large room behind him dubiously.

"How am I 'in the way' exactly?" He asked.

Claude looked exasperated. "If you're not helping, _you are in the way_." Sebastian rolled his eyes. It was obvious even to him that Claude was getting on his case only because he was nervous himself and felt the need to be in control of something. Claude didn't like not having control.

"What do you want me to do then? I don't know if you noticed but you're kinda of already doing _everything_." Sebastian snapped.

Claude narrowed his eyes. "Something. Anything. You're my _best man_ aren't you?" And once again that was thrown in his face. He sighed frustratedly as Claude marched away yelling loudly enough to be mistaken by a drill sergeant at one of Hannah's friends. The small man and the equally small men next to him that completed the full triplet trio were close friends with Hannah and had unfortunately been dealt the brunt of Claude's wrath.

"Being a bit of a bridezilla isn't he?" Ciel asked, coming to stand beside Sebastian.

Sebastian scoffed, fighting the urge to run a hand through his hair.

"Tell me about it. But he's just nervous. I think the feeling is new to him." The two began to walk, exiting the chaotic room and walking out into the cathedral. The building was huge, one of those ancient Roman Catholic buildings Sebastian was sure to have been built before electricity was invented. Guests were milling about everywhere, so many people that Sebastian wasn't even sure that Claude and Hannah knew them all.

"I think feeling itself is new to him." Ciel countered with a short laugh. "He's always so…" They weaved in and out of the guests, making for the main exit. Sebastian was in dire need of a cigarette.

"Stoic?" Sebastian supplied.

"Yeah. I'm shocked he even invited me to his wedding at all. But then again, I'm shocked that all of the people here were invited." They walked through the open doors adorned with white ribbon, golden ausmas, and lavender crocus.

Warm spring air greeted them as they stepped outside, it was nearing May now. The last spells of winter dissipated and now summer was creeping up on them, adding an extra layer of brightness and warmth to everything.

Sebastian hated it. Why didn't more people get married in the winter? Or fall, when the leaves radiated that same orange-yellow light without the heat to go with it.

"He likes you. That's why he invited you." Sebastian finally responded, now that they were in an area where they could actually hear each other. Ciel came to a stop in front of him as he leaned against a pillar, pulling out a cigarette from the inside of his suit.

"He also invited Alois." Ciel stated, crossing his arms.

Inviting Alois hadn't really been Claude's choice. Hannah for some reason was amused by the blonde and felt some strange sort of affection for the man that was constantly trying to steal her fiance from her. Sebastian didn't understand it and neither did Claude but Alois was here regardless.

He could do nothing but shrug.

They stood in relative silence and Sebastian observed Ciel as the younger turned his gaze to the street where somehow even more guests were arriving.

The younger man looked apprehensive, or _uncomfortable_ may have been the word. Distantly Sebastian wondered if his girlfriend had been bothering him about proposing to her with all this talk of weddings. He had heard they had a strange effect on women like that.

"So…" Ciel began suddenly, his tone sounding like he was genuinely curious about something and also like he wasn't sure he wanted to ask.

"...You've seemed happier lately."

Sebastian raised his eyebrows. "Happier?" He echoed.

Ciel looked even more uncomfortable."Yeah… I mean when we were still doing the project you were kind of… um… distracted? So… I was just wondering if something happened." He must have seen something in Sebastian's face because he then quickly added, "With Adrian, I mean."

And now Sebastian was uncomfortable.

He was hoping that his erratic behavior during the project hadn't been noticeable to anyone other than Vincent and Claude. He really wasn't expecting Ciel to have known him well enough to know that he was behaving strangely and even more to attribute that behavior to Adrian specifically. Although thinking about it, there really wasn't any way that anyone _couldn't_ have noticed.

They had been done with the project for almost a month and a half now. The group photoshoot they had to reshoot on Valentine's Day and the few individual assignments in the week after had been all they needed to wrap up and the line of clothing had a few more advertisement and production hoops to jump through but that didn't include them.

After Adrian and him had that very meaningful heart to heart talk in his apartment Valentine's day and… done _that_ ; Sebastian was in a whirlwind of new and unknown. Adrian had practically lived at his apartment for three days and they had done… _**that**_ more times than Sebastian could have ever anticipated, then he had been slapped in the face with the news that Adrian was returning to London. He had been irrationally angry at first, in the way he always got when dealing with Adrian as if he felt too much and those emotions could only channel into anger. They had argued, neither saying things they actually meant and then Adrian was gone.

Sebastian had barely made it two days before he had called Adrian and desperately apologized. Adrian had apologized as well and they agreed to talk as often as possible until he could return for some time in the summer. It had put an intense strain on their budding relationship and Sebastian often found himself realizing just how new to this he really was. He had hardly ever had a relationship he really cared about and putting thousands of miles of ocean between them was difficult but he wouldn't give up on this that easily.

"Um…" Sebastian realized he had stood motionless for some time and quickly knocked the ash from his cigarette, taking a deep drag of it.

He didn't really mind telling Ciel, the young man could keep his mouth shut and was showing genuine concern for him without ulterior motives. It was just that he didn't really know how to phrase it. He didn't want to have an "out-of-the-closet" talk, because that really wasn't all that true. He hadn't really ever been _in_ the closet to begin with.

"I guess we're dating right now. Or something like that."

Sebastian cringed.

It wasn't far from the truth, they just hadn't really talked about the specifics. Not that he minded of course. But even still he could have phrased it at least a _little_ better.

"What the fuck!" A sudden, new, voice called out. The voice startled Ciel so badly that he nearly fell over and Sebastian wheezed on the drag of cigarette he had just taken.

Alois appeared suddenly, looking completely bewildered.

"A-alois, what are you-" Ciel began, holding a hand over his heart with wide eyes.

"I saw you two looking all suspicious and walking out here together so I decided to follow you!" Alois shouted, pointing an accusatory finger. "And then I overhear _that_!"

Sebastian frowned. "Suspicious?"

Alois ignored him, looking completely outraged.

"How the fuck did _you_ get Adrian first!? _You_!? I had him! I totally caught him looking at my ass like three separate times!" Somehow Sebastian felt that wasn't true.

Alois' frown morphed into realization.

"No fucking way... Is he only into _straight_ guys!? Fuck! Or maybe bisexual? Because are you…?" Alois glanced over to Sebastian, then curled his lip in disgust. "No, nevermind I don't care. This is _bullshit_!"

Then, without another word from either of the people he just verbally assaulted, Alois spun on his heel and walked back into the cathedral- purple tailcoat swirling behind him.

As he turned though, Sebastian almost thought he saw that look of disgust morph into a small smile.

Maybe Hell really had frozen over.

...

Claude's nervousness was radiating from him permeating the minds of all around him and infusing them with that same fidgety, sweaty, mind numbing feeling. And since Sebastian was the best man and standing so close to him he was getting the worst of it. Though he could still feel the tenseness of the triplets besides him, he honestly had not paid much attention to them in their dance classes and sort of regretted not knowing which was Thompson, which was Timber and which was Canterbury. Looking across the altar, Sebastian wondered if Nina was being affected at all by any of this. With a start, he realized that the woman was actually wearing a dress which was to be expected given the occasion but she had almost unhealthy obsession with wearing shorts. She looked as uncomfortable as she probably felt but that usual look of contempt in her eyes was gone, replaced with a tender softness Sebastian had not thought possible.

Behind her stood the rest of Hannah's bridesmaids. Mey-rin, who looked like she might topple over at any moment with how impossibly tall her heels were. A woman named Paula, whom Sebastian had never really met before he assumed that she was a close friend of Hannah's. And then behind her, a relatively famous actress Sebastian hadn't even realized Claude and Hannah were associated with- Irene Diaz, undoubtedly beautiful in that overly polite way that wasn't really Sebastian's type. Her boyfriend had made his presence known in their practice sessions anyways.

Sebastian's attention was drawn to the entrance of the room as the signature wedding march music began to play. Hannah stepped into the room, emitting a quiet elegance as she took slow steps up to the altar. She looked the most beautiful he had ever seen her, long lilac hair pulled into an intricate updo with a darker variation of those crocus flowers weaved in. She looked radiant. A quiet smile stretched her lips as she looked up to Claude who seemed to have lost the ability to function. Behind Hannah was Luka, Alois' younger brother, who seemed to be serving as a ring bearer.

Eventually she was standing beside Claude in front of the altar looking radiant enough that Sebastian wasn't sure if it was the lights lighting up the room or her.

The congregation in the booths produced a soft hush from the movement of clothing as everyone sat back down. The loud wedding march had quieted also, now a soft but tender melody.

"Welcome everyone," The priest began. He was a young man, much younger and flashier that Sebastian thought a priest was allowed to be. Honestly he wasn't even wearing the traditional cassock. Instead he seemed to be matching the theme of wedding itself wearing a white suit with a long coat and an ascot with a ruby brooch in the center and as he lifted his arms in a welcoming gesture, the extended lace sleeves of his undershirt became visible as well as his white gloves.

"We are here to witness the most soul binding and holy ceremony, the beautiful and exquisite matrimony of Claude Faustus and Hannah Annafeloz." The man spoke intensely, gesturing wildly and Sebastian had to wonder once again if they had hired a proper priest or some deranged idiot that had played them.

"May God himself bless this holy couple on this world changing day and let their souls become one as they were always meant to be; A joining that I, Priest Aleistor Chamber will make it my holy duty to achieve on this day."

Sebastian looked upon the crowd and caught eyes with Bard who gave look that said he didn't look too confident in the legitimacy of this priest either. Sebastian give him a look in return, eyes gesturing to the suit he was wearing with a smirk and Bard rolled his eyes and flicked him off stealthily.

...

The ceremony went on for what felt like hours, between the impromptu sermons the priest kept giving seeming emotionally moved in a way that was almost disturbing, the readings from the bible, and the long exchange of vows in which Claude messed up several times- revealing just how nervous he was. He had actually stuttered. _Claude Faustus had stuttered_.

And then there had been the exchange of rings. Luka had walked up to the altar from the side and presented the ring to Sebastian and then to Nina who then had to go through a long process involving interacting with the overly flamboyant priest to bless the rings and then Claude and Hannah had to say even more vows. All in all the entire process reminded Sebastian why he had never been too keen on going to these things.

After the formal ceremony they had moved everything outside, where the sun had just begun to set.

He was exhausted now and they still were not done with the formalities. No, now it was time for the bridesmaids and groomsmen to perform the dance that they had learned. He had been allowed a small break when Hannah had gone to change into a dress she could actually dance in but now he was exhausted and that feeling would only double now that Nina Hopkins was standing in front of him and the music signalling the beginning of the song began to play. Hannah and Claude were off to the side holding each other and watching them.

Sebastian cursed them in his head.

He stepped forward when he heard the signalling shift in the melody and took hold of Nina's hand, putting an arm around her waist, and began the dance.

They performed it flawlessly, and Sebastian felt the surge of pride in that feat as the four men successfully twirled their partners and then dipped them. Something they had added on at the last second and most of them had repeatedly forgotten to do at the last rehearsal. It was still a pain to do but Sebastian was at least pleased that he managed to do something that his best friend's _wife_ wanted at her wedding.

The crowd erupted in cheers as the music stopped and Nina had even stiffly patted him on the shoulder and said "Nice work. I was beginning to think you were truly incompetent." before walking over to the bride and groom. It was the closest thing to a compliment that she had ever given him.

Sebastian rolled his eyes and made his way into the surrounding crowd. It was time for the first dance soon.

Ciel and Elizabeth caught his attention so he walked over to them.

"Oh my gosh, Sebastian!" Elizabeth cried when he was close enough. She pulled in for a hug and beamed at him with all the brightness of a 100 watt bulb. Ciel looked more exhausted than Sebastian felt and once again he had to wonder if all this talk of weddings was getting the best of his girlfriend.

"That was so amazing! I didn't know that you could dance so well! You and Nina were just stunning!" She continued, nearly bouncing up and down from excitement.

"Thank you. I'd be damned if all the misery I went through in the practices were for nothing."

Out of the corner of his eye he could see Mey-rin and Bard making their way over. Mey-rin seemed to be blushing madly for some reason and Bard looked pissed off. Sebastian turned his attention to them as they approached.

"I'm telling you I saw it myself." Bard snapped gruffly.

"He really didn't, though! I swear!" Mey-rin cried.

"I _saw_ his hand _grab your ass_ , Mey. If we weren't at a wedding right now I'd beat the shit out of that scrawny bastard."

Sebastian frowned. "What happened?"

"Nothing!" Mey-rin squeaked.

"Nothing my ass!" Bard exploded, drawing attention to their small group.

Bard sighed in frustration at the cautious eyes now on him and loosened his tie with a finger.

"I hate weddings, you know that?" He cast a tired glance Sebastian's way.

"What the fuck are you smirking at?" Sebastian didn't even realize he had been but quickly wiped the expression away. Bard narrowed his eyes. "You know you've seemed a lot more smiley these last few weeks Mr. Grumpy."

Ciel snorted at the nickname and Elizabeth swatted at him.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Sebastian replied, a humorous tone in his voice that instantly brought the smirk back to his face.

Mey-rin caught on immediately, but Sebastian also thought that she might have just been eager to change the conversation.

"Ooh, something happened didn't it?" At Sebastian's silence she poked him in the shoulder.

" _Didn't it_? Come on, tell us."

"What? I'm at best friend's wedding what's not to be happy about?" Sebastian's smirk stretched wider.

Mey-rin narrowed her eyes and grinned conspiratorially up at him.

"Bullshit. And you know it. Come _on_! We're your friends aren't we!?"

"You might as well just tell them." Ciel spoke up. "They're going to find out eventually anyways. You're not as good at hiding things as you think."

Mey-rin looked offended. "You told _Ciel_ and not us!?"

Sebastian noticed movement behind them and took his opportunity.

"Shh." He said, forcibly turning Mey-rin around. "The dance is starting."

Claude and Hannah were making their way to the center of the field as music started up once again. Sebastian may have been bullshitting Mey-rin but he really was happy for Claude and a surge of something like pride rushed up inside of him as he watched the two hold each other close and sway to the music.

After a while, when it was consensually deemed appropriate by the change in music a few other couples joined the two on the dance floor. Irene and her own boyfriend Grimsby. Then Mey-rin and Bard as she tugged him along with her. Ciel put up more of a fight but eventually Elizabeth half dragged him out there with her. A few other couples that Sebastian didn't recognize went out as well and he suddenly felt very much the odd one out as every couple that had attending the wedding were now dancing together leaving the singles to stand awkwardly by themselves.

Although, as he looked around he noticed that Vincent had walked over to his sister-in-law, Angelina, and offered his hand in an overly gentlemanly way and she smiled gratefully at him as they began to dance as well. A few girls had walked over to the triplets and though the conversation looking kind of awkward from where he was standing two of them had gone with the girls that asked while the other stood firm and the last girl looked almost distraught as she walked away.

Even Nina somehow had convinced Alois' little brother to dance with her and Sebastian made a note of it incase he had to call the police later when Luka went missing. Speaking of, he didn't see Alois anywhere and all the possible things the blonde could be doing in a cathedral somewhere sent an unpleasant shiver down his spine at the same time it made him almost laugh out loud.

He almost felt uncomfortable as he stood there by himself looking on at all the couples and a pang of loneliness hit him. Could he really do this long distance thing? Desperately wanting to be around someone and not being able to was an alien feeling in itself but he had been getting this pangs of loneliness almost every time he saw a couple holding hands or smiling up at each other or laughing at an inside joke. Would he always have to feel that way?

"What's someone like you doing out here standing all by themselves?" A voice asked behind him. It scared him out of his skin and he turned to look at who the voice belonged to but they had moved closer in an instant and their cool hands were on his shoulders, chest slightly touching his back. Sebastian should have felt more alarmed by the closeness but although his head couldn't catch up he felt deep down somewhere that he knew who they were.

He resisted the urge to turn around now, instead looking out into the dancing group as though nothing had happened, but the rapid thumping of his heart suggested otherwise.

"I can do an American accent quite well, don't you think?" The now familiar english accented voice asked, sounding all too pleased and equally amused. Out of the corner of his eye Sebastian could see a strand of silvery hair dropping onto his shoulder.

"What are you doing here?" Was all Sebastian could ask. Adrian giggled behind him, his mouth now right up to his ear sending the warmth breathe into it sending a shudder through his body he was sure Adrian could feel.

"Indeed. What _am_ I doing here?" The hands that hand been placed atop Sebastian's shoulders now moved until Adrian's arms were wrapped around his chest holding him tightly.

"Sneaking out I suppose? I arranged for my private jet to take me here, although I am a bit later than intended. I do believe I missed the ceremony entirely, what a pity." Adrian peppered a few kisses up the side of Sebastian's neck and he hoped that nobody had noticed them yet.

"I wanted to see you." Adrian whispered against his ear, before finally turning Sebastian around in his arms and hugging him almost desperately. Sebastian found himself hugging him back with just as much desperation. His heart lit aflame with affection as the realization of what Adrian had just done dawned on him. He had dropped everything and jumped on a jet just to see _him_.

"You know…" Sebastian started after a moment. "Most people would just facetime if they wanted to see someone's face."

Adrian chuckled against him. "I can't really touch you over the phone can I?"

"No, I guess not." Sebastian found himself grinning despite himself.

Adrian pulled away from him, a devious smirk on his face, pressing a kiss to Sebastian's lips.

"Can't do that through a screen either."

"Definitely not." Sebastian agreed in an overly serious way.

"There are a lot of other things you can't do through a screen either that I would _love_ to do right now." Sebastian sucked in a breath at the suggestion and Adrian beamed at him.

"But I would hate cause a scandal at your friend's wedding." Adrian nodded over to the crowd where Claude was looking at the two of them with a warning in his eyes. Sebastian rolled his eyes and shot Claude a small thumbs up. The amber eyed man looked confused at the action but after a moment his expression looked defeated and he shot a thumbs up their way. Sebastian turned his attention back to Adrian. "I'm sure the priest wouldn't be too happy about it either."

"Oh, I don't know about that." Sebastian laughed. "I get the feeling he's not too fond of rules himself."

Adrian quirked an eyebrow up at that but smiled nonetheless.

"Well then, how about we join in the festivities?" He offered, holding out a hand. Sebastian took it, after a moment of hesitation and the two walked over to the other swaying couples, holding each other as the music played.

Sebastian looked up after a while, hooking a hand behind Adrian's neck to bring him down slightly for another kiss.

"I have to leave before ten." Adrian whispered as Sebastian was drawing away. He sounded regretful but Sebastian knew that even seeing each other for a few hours was better than not seeing each other for a full month and a half. Still, he felt a bit disappointed that because of where they were they didn't really have time to do those other things Adrian mentioned.

So it was that sense of disappointment that sent his lips crashing against the others desperately as if he may not ever see him again.

They didn't have much time and Sebastian couldn't help but feel a bit like Prince Charming about to be left at the ball as Cinderella ran away at midnight. But he could be happy for now. He could appreciate that they felt the same way about each other. He could appreciate the struggle their relationship was going to be. Nothing ever worth having was easy.

He was happy. And he supposed that's what mattered the most.

* * *

 **OH MY GOSH. Can't believe this is "over" already! I really, really loved writing this story. I love everything about it, and that's really impressive considering how self-conscious I am of my stories. It was a learning experience and I tried new things and _planned_ and enjoyed every second of it and I feel like I've grown so much as an author. I went from rarely being able to write 4,000 words to having that be the _minimum_ for almost every chapter! Anyways thank you guys so much for joining me on the ride... but I hope you'll stay a little longer. I've got about 5 or so extras I'm planning to do that I'm still just going to post onto this story. Look forward to those! Love you all so much! (Also had to have them married in a church the irony just calls my name. And I've only been to one wedding that was on a beach and the bride had an obsession with puppeteering... so sorry if any of this is inaccurate. )**


	11. Extra 1

Extra #1: Adrian is sick

* * *

Time had passed quickly. Well even though it had, it didn't really feel like it. Sebastian had been far too busy counting down the days of Adrian's return. And even when his _boyfriend_ , yes it was _definitely_ still weird to say that, was actually here their days felt long when apart and went by far too quickly when they were together.

At least the two both had enough time in their schedules to spend some time together. Which was somehow a rare occurrence even when they were in the same country at the same time. Sebastian was on his way now to Adrian's penthouse, an event that had become so common the staff had stopped giving him scrutinizing glares when he walked into the lobby.

A smile that couldn't be contained stretched his lips as he pushed in the now familiar code and stepped into the elevator.

Adrian had been in the states for a few days already but somehow Sebastian's schedule had been more busy than his and they hadn't been able to coordinate their schedules in a way that allowed them some time together until today.

A new coffee shop had opened up in the area and Sebastian was supposed to pick Adrian up, preferably after they got _reaquainted_ with each other, and take him there. It was something Sebastian had been looking forward to for the last few weeks so it was only natural that his smile only got wider as he stepped out of the elevator and walked up to the door. He held the buzzer and spoke into the microphone there,

"Adrian, it's me."

He stuck his hands into the pockets of his pants and waited patiently.

And continued to wait.

After a few moments passed, Sebastian frowned and tried knocking on the door instead in case the buzzer had stopped working or something. He had texted Adrian a few minutes before he entered the building to let him know he was coming up so Adrian should have been expecting him. Although…

Sebastian frowned, pulling his phone from his back pocket. No new messages. Adrian hadn't responded.

Sebastian's frown deepened. He decided to check the door on a whim just to see if it was locked and was surprised by the lack of resistance. He pushed down harder on the handle and the door opened. It was...unlocked?

A rush of panic set his nerves alight as he hesitantly stepped into the apartment. Even after all the times Sebastian had been here the luxuriousness of the space still unsettled him. Everything was so pristine and silver and shiny.

But now was not the time for admiring Adrian's penthouse.

"Adrian…!" Sebastian called, cautiously making his way further into the space and looking carefully for any abnormalities. He really hoped that nobody had broken in, Adrian was _supposed_ to be at home and his door was unlocked and yet nothing was heard in response.

As he neared Adrian's bedroom a gruff cough echoed in the hallway and Sebastian hurried over to the door.

"Adrian! What the hell…?" His desperate yelp quickly turned into surprise as he stumbled into the threshold of Adrian's bedroom.

The silver haired man with the chartreuse eyes that he had been longing to see was there, wrapped up in a blanket so tightly he looked more like a giant shining caterpillar no doubt thanks to the shimmery silver color of his Egyptian cotton sheets.

In fact, Adrian was so wrapped in his sheets that the only part of him Sebastian could see was his messy bangs haphazardly strewn across his face from the extremely loose bun resting atop of his head and the bright green of his eyes.

"Oh, there you are." Adrian ground out, sounding like someone from those commercials that had been smoking a pack of cigarettes every day for the past forty years.

Sebastian's eyebrows pinched together in concern.

"Are you okay? Why is your front door unlocked?"

Adrian shifted in his blankets, reminding Sebastian more of a cocoon on the brink of metamorphosis than a caterpillar now, and half sat up so he could properly face the doorway.

"You said you were coming to get me. I thought it would be best if you could just let yourself in without my needing to get up." An attack of coughs rattled his lungs and he was left breathless by the end of it.

"You could have left the _key_. Put it somewhere strategic, don't just leave your door open for anyone to come in!" Sebastian chastised now that his initial fear of a break-in had subsided into a sense of urgency he didn't know what to do with.

Adrian smirked up at him with a warm glint in his eyes. "You're so cute when you're upset."

Sebastian sighed in exasperation and took a seat on the bed next to his cocoon wrapped boyfriend.

"Shut up. Are you okay?"

Adrian sneezed violently, irritating his throat enough to incite another coughing attack.

"Definitely not." He stated with a touch of sarcasm as he regained his breath. "Don't think I'm going to be able to make that coffee date you had planned. Don't even know if I can pull myself out of bed again today at all. Sorry, love." Sebastian forced down both the fluttery feeling the nickname evoked and the disappointment that immediately welled up.

"No, I mean if you're sick you should just stay in bed and get some rest. You have a busy few weeks here so we can do that some other time."

Adrian shifted in his cocoon again until his head was resting against Sebastian's stomach. "And just when we finally had some time to spend together." Sebastian's hand automatically entangled itself in the satiny stands of Adrian's hair and he was suddenly finding the urge to kiss him irresistible. But he was sick, so instead Sebastian busied his thoughts with what his hand was doing.

"I missed you." Adrian all but whined, snuggling closer.

Sebastian's heart swelled at the last time Adrian had acted so sentimental was that time when he had made an impromptu flight to America in the middle of the night and crashed Claude's wedding just to see him.

"I missed you too." Sebastian reciprocated warmly, wrapping an arm against the extremely cuddly man.

"Is there anything you need? Medicine or soup?" He wasn't sure how long he could restrain himself with Adrian practically in his lap and being so uncharacteristically adorable.

Adrian groaned, sniffling. "I suppose. I don't think I really have anything here. I could have called Will or Grell earlier but I knew you were coming over. I wanted _you_." Sebastian's face inflamed as blood rushed up to the surface of his skin. He cleared his throat nervously and untangled his fingers from Adrian's hair, resting his palm against his forehead. He felt hot but the sweat settling on his skin made him feel cold and clammy at the same time.

"Yeah, I think you really need to take some medicine. I'm going to go out and get you some, so just stay here and in bed. I'll be back." Adrian mumbled in response, snuggling further into his mess of silvery sheets and fluffy white blankets. Sebastian cautiously removed himself from the bed, careful to not jostle the sleeping ball of adorableness that was Adrian Crevan.

He located the key to the apartment that Adrian always kept in a bowl in the kitchen along with other miscellaneous items and keys. He felt too uncomfortable leaving Adrian sick and incapacitated with the door completely unlocked.

Locking the door behind him, Sebastian exited the apartment making his way into the elevator and then into the lobby. He walked over to one of the receptionists and asked where the nearest pharmacy was. The young woman blushed and scrambled to relay the directions to him. There was apparently one up the street a bit, on the corner.

Sebastian thanked her, flashing her a brilliant smile and set out to his destination.

It was hot out, the mid summer heat causing a light sweat to dampen Sebastian's skin. He scowled and walked faster, jogging across the street when he noticed the crosswalk sign was counting down.

When he arrived at the pharmacy the blast of frosty air awaiting him at the entrance was a welcome respite and dried the perspiration that had begun to gather.

As he scanned the lines of medications, snacks, and quick meals he suddenly realized that although he had promised to get Adrian medication he had no idea what to get. Sighing, he realized he hadn't even asked Adrian what his symptoms were so he could look for something specifically. Not to mention he hadn't carefully looked at what had been given to him the last time he was sick and it wouldn't do any good now since it had either been thrown away or lost in the magical abyss that was his apartment.

He cursed himself for being such an idiot and made his way towards the nearest aisle. Grimacing as his eyes fell upon rows of women's sanitary pads and then adult diapers- he made his way to the next aisle as quickly as possible.

Pain medication. His eyes raked over the various rows of bottles and colorful brand names. He had just decided when a white bottle labeled "antihistamine" caught his eye. He picked it up and examined it. _Useful in reducing inflammation and fevers._

He vaguely remembered something from a health class he took once mentioning something similar.

Feeling confident, he held on to the bottle and continued to weave through the aisles. He picked up a few other bottles, purple cough medicine, some tablets, a bottle of gummy vitamins, and some colorfully striped cough drops. He even remembered to browse through the food aisles and pick up some ginger ale and soup.

As he approached the checkout counter the man standing behind the counter raised an eyebrow at him as he checked out Sebastian's items and stared for so long that Sebastian actually noticed it.

"Something on my face?" He offered, frowning in confusion.

The grocer blanched and went red in the face.

"Uh… no. No sorry. I was just trying to figure out where I've seen you before."

Sebastian's mouth crooked up into a smirk.

"Well I'm a model so maybe you've seen me in an advertisement?" The grocer frowned and tilted his head as if he was trying to look at Sebastian's face from a different angle.

"No it wasn't an advertisement…" He mumbled. Then his eyes went wide as he finally found his answer.

"Black desire!" The man suddenly shouted, looking at Sebastian in pure awe.

Sebastian smiled politely though he felt extremely awkward in the inside. Meeting people who recognized him from Black Desire was rare and more often than not were women. Men that recognized him always reacted in a way that made Sebastian think that they had spent many nights together in that person's head.

The man was still appraising him, looking him up and down with an odd glint in his eye.

"You look so much different with clothes on."

An older woman standing behind Sebastian in line cleared her throat and pursed her lips in distaste as she looked between the two of them.

The man muttered an apology and finished scanning Sebastian's items in a hurry.

"This is so crazy that you're standing in front of me in the flesh. I've spent so much time looking at your face. Especially in your feature magazine a few months ago? The one you did with _The_ Undertaker. The two of you together looked _unreal,_ " The man paused as Sebastian handed him a fifty dollar bill and he counted out the change, neatly handing it back.

"He's so gorgeous and you're just... wow." The man breathed out a laugh as his eyes fell upon Sebastian again. He plucked the receipt from the mini printer and handed it over, but as Sebastian reached for it the man took hold of his hand. Sebastian's eyes slowly looked over his name tag. _Luke_.

"A-Are you doing anything later? We can maybe go for dinner or something? I'd love to get to know you." Sebastian almost laughed in his face. The way his eyes raked over Sebastian's body as if remembered just how good his body looked under the clothes suggested he wanted to be more acquainted with his body over anything else.

Sebastian forced a smile to stay on his face as he carefully pried his hand out of the man's grasp.

He wasn't unattractive. In fact, he looked a bit like Bard but with longer hair, greener eyes, smaller muscles, and less facial hair. Quite a few people probably would have called him "hot" and gushed over his good looks. But honestly, beyond considering how well his jawline would look in low light and wondering if the modeling agencies he knew might like to work with him, Sebastian wasn't interested in the slightest. He had a much better looking, sometimes adorable, and very sick man waiting for him.

"Listen, Luke…" Sebastian didn't miss how his eyes lit up at the use of his name. "I actually, have to hurry back and get medicine to someone." He gestured at the items that had been put in his shopping bag.

Luke looked crestfallen and turned his kicked puppy dog eyes upon Sebastian in an attempt to change his mind. When that failed he huffed and ruffled his hair up a bit in obvious annoyance.

"You know that Undertaker guy, Adrian or whatever his name is… is he actually an asshole? He just seems so cocky and arrogant all the time, I don't if it's for his public image or not but just seeing his face makes me irritated. Plus there are all those rumors that the two of you don't get along."

Sebastian couldn't help but burst into laughter. The guy had done a 180 in his personality over the span of a few minutes and yet somehow reminded him exactly of himself a little under a year ago.

"I used to think the exact same thing, but we really just had a huge misunderstanding. He's alright once you get to know him."

" _Excuse me, gentlemen!"_ The old lady behind Sebastian suddenly snapped. "I will _not_ stand here all day while the two of you have a conversation. Do _not_ make me speak to your manager young man! This is ridiculous! Millennials these days, don't know customer service if it _spat on them_!"

Sebastian took that as his cue to leave as Luke suddenly started rushing apologies to the woman and began to scan her items. He gathered up his bags and made for the exit.

"Hey! Uh- Wait!" Luke yelled behind him. "I wanted to get your autograph!" Sebastian grimaced and put a little more speed in his step on his way back to Adrian's apartment.

...

Adrian was still sleeping when he returned but awoke easily enough when Sebastian attempted to quietly set down the medicines he had bought- finding out that he had bought way more items than he thought he had- and accidently knocked over a glass of water.

Sebastian cursed under his breath and rushed off into the kitchen to grab a towel to pat the floor dry.

Adrian rolled towards him, now substantially more out of his covers than in them and the hairs on his forehead were wet with perspiration. He had probably gotten too hot with all the layers on him.

"Mm…" He groaned sleepily. "You back, love? What are you doing…?"

"Just cleaning up some water I spilled." Sebastian responded, deeming the carpet dry enough and turning his gaze onto Adrian. Noticing the state he was in, Sebastian quickly returned to living area, hanging the wet towel to dry in the laundry room and then cranking the thermostat lower so that the air conditioning would come on.

"I brought you some medicine." Sebastian announced upon returning to the bedroom. Adrian looked a bit more awake now and was rubbing his eyes drowsily.

He glanced over to Sebastian before noticing the multitude of different bottles sitting on his nightstand. He reached for the one closest to him and brought it up to his face so he could read it.

Suddenly he burst out into his signature wild cackling, startling Sebastian. The wild cackling triggered a coughing attack which evolved into a vicious cycle that left Adrian completely winded and Sebastian completely bewildered by the end.

"What are you laughing at?" Sebastian asked once Adrian had calmed down. The question seemed to send another thrill of amusement through him as he broke out into giggles instead.

Sebastian narrowed his eyes in rising annoyance.

"Sebastian… you…" Adrian took a few deep breaths to avoid breaking into laughter after catching sight of Sebastian's unpleased face.

"You… these are _kids multivitamins_." Sebastian frowned in confusion and Adrian turned his attention back to the other assortment of bottles sitting on the nightstand.

He picked up a bright pink bottle.

"This is pepto-bismol." At Sebastian's blank stare he elaborated. "It's for stomach aches and the like." He went through the rest of the medicines on the table.

"Laxatives… Aspirin… Ibuprofen… Vitamin C… Vitamin A… Benadryl...Tylenol…" He reached over and picked up the two packages of individually wrapped medicines. "And these are… Vitamin C lozenges… and cherry flavored dry mouth lozenges…" Sebastian could see Adrian visibly shaking from the effort of not laughing.

He scowled.

Adrian covered his mouth with a hand but when he saw Sebastian pouting a snort escaped which eventually devolved into maniacal giggles and then he was laughing again which ended in violent coughing once more.

Sebastian was frowning now. "So, what? Is this not stuff you get for a cold?" Adrian came back to his senses enough to realize that Sebastian was getting genuinely upset.

"Oh love… not at all." Sebastian's expression set into a glare but Adrian could tell that he was just embarrassed.

"I got you some soup too." He ground out.

"Did you? What kind?"

"It's chicken noodle. _That_ at least is something sick people eat, right?" Sebastian asked, face brightening at little at doing _something_ right.

"It is… might I ask though if it has celery in it?" Sebastian scrunched up his eyebrows trying to remember.

"I think so. Most do right?"

Adrian's face had soured. "Indeed they do. A shame that I'm deathly allergic to celery." Sebastian looked crestfallen.

Adrian felt guilt tug at his heartstrings for causing such an expression and dragged himself over to where Sebastian was standing, coaxing him down and wrapping his arms around him in a makeshift hug.

"Love, I'm sorry. I appreciate the effort you put into it." Sebastian grunted in response, obviously upset. "Don't be upset with me." He nudged Sebastian averted gaze towards him.

"I already told you, you're too cute when you're upset." Adrian leaned in to kiss him but Sebastian hesitated.

"You're sick." He pointed out.

Adrian smirked, the brilliant one that he reserved specially for magazine shoots, and all of Sebastian's hesitance melted away.

"I won't care if you don't."

Rolling his eyes, Sebastian leaned in closing his mouth over Adrian's and relishing in the fact that he finally got to do this. He hadn't tasted Adrian's mouth in a few weeks and it scared him how much he had missed it.

Suddenly without warning, Adrian pulled Sebastian on top of him and attempted to deepen their kiss but Sebastian hesitated again, all too aware of how much of his bodyweight he was putting on the man underneath him.

"You're sick." Sebastian restated, rebalancing until all of his weight was on his hands and knees as he straddled Adrian.

"Yes, you keep mentioning that." Adrian reached up and wove a hand through Sebastian's raven haired locks adoringly. "I could control myself when you were sick last time but now that _I_ am… not so much. Although the circumstances were much different back then."

Sebastian smiled down at him, that moment where Adrian had lost control of himself just enough to hint at his longing was one of his fondest memories.

He reached up with a hand and wove his fingers between Adrian's which were now cradling his face and leaned into the touch. After a tender moment of looking into each other's eyes, Sebastian brought Adrian's hand down to his mouth and pressed a kiss to his palm.

"I don't know if you've noticed but I'm not very good at controlling myself around you in general. But since you _are_ sick, how about you just lay right there and I'll take care of you for a while." Sebastian grinned deviously and slinked down Adrian's legs pulling the covers over head as he repositioned himself.

"Ooh," Adrian cooed. "I like seeing you so assertive. How I have enjoyed seeing you try to be nurturing and charitable today."

Sebastian pinched his inner thigh in retaliation before sliding his satiny pajama bottoms off.

Adrian seemed positively tickled by what he had said and attacked Sebastian with even more teasing words.

"It really makes me wonder how on Earth you've been able to take care of yourself without me around, Sebastian. It really does." The double entendre was not lost and Sebastian rolled his eyes under the sheets.

Even though Adrian was teasing he couldn't hide how quickly his hips bucked upwards when Sebastian ghosted a hand over his already hardened length.

"Looks like someone's missed me." Sebastian taunted, words coming muffled under the layers.

Adrian scoffed. "Well, of course. I did tell you that before didn't I? And then I had a most wonderful dream of you while you were gone." He sucked in a gasp as Sebastian hand firmly wrapped around the base of his erection.

Sebastian peaked his head out from beyond the covers, eyes glittering with lust.

"Oh yeah? And what was I doing in your dream?" It had become no secret between the two just how much Sebastian enjoyed dirty talk during sex and Adrian was more than willing to provide him with it.

"Naturally, moaning at a rate befitting a porn star below me." Adrian teased, blowing out a breathy sigh as Sebastian roughly jerked at his cock in admonishment.

"Remove the covers from your head so that I might actually see you, as I haven't in far too long, and maybe I'll try again." Nearly instantaneously the covers were removed and Sebastians lust glazed eyes were latched tightly onto those chartreuse ones.

"That's better. Now unfortunately my dream was gone to the nether before I could experience anything thrilling so I suppose we'll have to make up for that."

"I guess so." Sebastian agreed, a smirk overtaking his expression as he began an agonizingly slow pace of running his closed fist up and down over Adrian's cock.

"And while a handjob sounds promising, especially coming from you… I'm quite certain that if my dream had continued I would have been able to see your glorious mouth wrapped around me."

"I'll get right to work on that." Sebastian grinned and quickened the pace of his strokes, squeezing harder each time he got to the tip until the head was leaking with precum.

Then with Adrian's whine of impatience Sebastian readjusted until he was face level with his hips.

He took his sweet time, amusing himself by lapping at the precum gathering at the tip and watching how Adrian's entire body tensed by the touch of his tongue and relaxed when he drew away.

After a few minutes Adrian huffed in annoyance. "There definitely would not have been this much teasing in the dream. And if I wasn't so under the weather currently I'd thoroughly scold you for doing so." Sebastian breathed out a laugh, causing Adrian's cock to jump at the rush of warm breath.

"Alright, alright." He sighed and licked a stripe up the underside of the achingly hard erection in from of him, replacing his tongue with his fist at the base, hollowed out his cheeks and took Adrian into his mouth.

It was only his second time doing this since they'd been together, so he wasn't the greatest at it but he had taken Adrian's advice of doing what he himself liked done to him and mixed in a bit of Adrian's own personal tastes. For example, what he lacked in precision he made up for with saliva. Adrian preferred a wet fuck, the sounds of naked skin slapping against naked skin was music to his ears- the more lewd it sounded the more turned on he was and that was especially the case with blowjobs.

He hollowed out his cheeks as he sucked and licked and the guttural sound from Adrian's throat was more of a growl than a moan.

Unfortunately the sound also agitated his throat and he began to cough. And whether it was on purpose or not the force of the coughs rocked Adrian's diaphragm causing his hips to buck upwards into Sebastian's mouth each time causing his eyes to burn and water.

Adrian panted for breath as the coughing spell lifted, but wound his slender fingers into Sebastian's hair- grip iron tight.

"O-oh shite. _Fuck_. That was good, letting me fuck that eager mouth of yours." His voice was raw and rugged, heavily emphasising the deep drawl of his accent and both the words and his voice sent a thrill down Sebastian's spine. He was hard now too and had regretted leaving his pants on, there was nothing more uncomfortable than an erection straining against fabric.

But he quickly forgot all of that when Adrian's hips rose off the bed deliberately, forcing his length further down Sebastian's throat.

He struggled to keep still and relax his throat, mentally forcing himself not to panic. Adrian's vice like grip in his hair was keeping him from pulling away to breathe so he settled for short puffs of breath in and out of his nose.

"Taking me in so fucking nicely, so good for me. _So good_."

Adrian was rarely ever forceful with him during sex, preferring it to be a mutual experience but he was needy today and all too eager to take what he wanted. The thrill of that sent another wave of discomfort from Sebastian's far too tight pants.

He lost concentration for a second and in that moment Adrian fucked up into his mouth violently. Sebastian throat convulsed around the cock shoving it's way down his esophagus, dry heaving and scrambled to slip Adrian's cock out of his mouth just as the older man orgasmed with another guttural moan.

He barely had time to register what was happening but managed to close his eyes as a hot liquid substance shot onto his face, his shirt and the bedsheets around him.

The two were breathless for a long moment, their heaving gasps the only noise in the room.

Sebastian opened his eyes gingerly, wary of semen accidentally getting into them and looked up.

Adrian was staring at him ravenously, bright green eye hooded with lust, cheeks ablaze and a light sheen of sweat over his brow.

"Fuck, I am so sorry." He mumbled, reaching down and pushing Sebastian's hair out of his face. "But dear God you look so fucking sexy like that. I need a picture." Adrian looked around for his phone and Sebastian scowled, dragging himself out from under the sheets and off of the bed.

"You are _not_ getting a picture of me like this. Absolutely not." His voice came out rough and his throat was aching which was hot even to him so he could only imagine how thoroughly wrecked he looked.

He stepped into the bathroom and didn't bother to even glance at his reflection before he peeled off his shirt, using it to wipe away the quickly drying come on his face and then turned on the tap to wash away the residue with water.

"I'll leave the shirt for you!" Sebastian called out in amusement, leaving the ruined shirt on the bathroom counter.

Adrian was pulling his pajama pants back on when Sebastian returned and quickly scooted over to make room under the sheets.

"That was… very nice. Thank you." Adrian praised as Sebastian crawled in. He cuddled up to Sebastian, resting his head on his bare chest.

"Anytime." Sebastian grinned, wrapping an arm around him. "Just maybe warn me a little next time before you shove your entire dick down my throat."

Adrian chuckled jovially.

"Of course. Sorry about that." His hand wandered down to them hem of Sebastian's pants, dipping a finger underneath them.

Sebastian tensed, all of his attention suddenly going to his own neglected erection.

"Adrian…" He warned, the unspoken words reminding the older man once again that he was sick.

"Mmm." He hummed against Sebastian's chest. "It seems I've missed you entirely too much to have any self control today."

Sebastian groaned as Adrian's hand slipped down even further and brushed against the hardness of his erection, coaxing it back to life.

"I unfortunately think I'm in the same position." He mumbled, turning his head down and meeting Adrian's lips with his own in a kiss.

* * *

 **Hey guys! Sorry this took so much longer than it should have. I've been extremely tired and extremely busy and then more tired and more busy and in the little freetime I had I was working on some other projects. Not to mention I also had to kind of plan out how I wanted the extras to go and the order of each, but I think I have 3 others planned and I was toying with the idea of an epilogue- let me know if that's something you'd want to see!- but I'll probably wait until after the extras to see if there's anything else I want to add to the story. I am planning to do a sort of "Forgotten/Rejected Scenes" extra so I'm just not sure if an epilogue on top of that would be necessary.**

 **Thank you guys, again. Don't know if I've properly expressed how grateful I am for all the support, but I love you all! :D**

 **Hopefully the next extra will come soon but I'm thinking it's going to be a long one so we'll see!**


	12. Extra 2

Extra 2/4: Sebastian is jealous of Vincent and Adrian attempts to explain why that's unnecessary.

(If you have not read the manga this chapter may be confusing. Weston College is a public school that admits only male students between the ages of 13 and 19 -I think- and it is canon that Vincent Phantomhive and Diedrich both attended this school at the same time. This chapter contains no major spoilers of the manga. Though, if you'd like to know more about Weston College feel free to read about it in the Kuroshitsuji wiki page which is also mostly spoiler free in regards to plot. That particular page does mention characters not yet introduced in the anime. Also the word "fag" is taken directly from the manga and is a term used to describe "little brothers" of upperclassmen who are chosen by upperclassmen, usually as an honor, to perform certain duties such as cleaning their assigned upperclassmen's rooms or ironing their clothing. The word is not meant to be offensive, although I do hate using it no matter what it's being used as.)

* * *

"You're late." Sebastian sighed as he opened the door to his apartment, leaning against the frame with his arms crossed.

Adrian Crevan, his boyfriend, sighed in return. "Very late." He agreed.

Sebastian raised an eyebrow, clearly unimpressed.

"The meeting ended hours ago. Vincent and I were catching up afterwards and I simply lost track of time. I'm sorry, love." The silver haired man moved forward and pressed a chaste kiss to Sebastian's mouth, frowning slightly when that affection wasn't returned.

Sebastian rolled his eyes and moved away from the door in a huff. Adrian followed him inside and closed the door behind them.

"It smells good in here, did you cook without me?" He called out, taking off his shoes and setting his things down.

"I was gonna starve if I sat here waiting for you." His raven haired partner called from the kitchen.

Adrian followed the voice, finding his lover spooning out some stew into a bowl for him. He accepted it when it was held out to him, spooning a bit of it into his mouth.

"Did you follow the instructions I gave you exactly?"

Winter had rolled around again, the perfect time for stew and the approach of their one year anniversary. Adrian was in town for a few weeks and they had slowly been building up Sebastian's cooking skill. Adrian was supposed to be over at 5 after a meeting with some executives but instead had arrived at nearly 9 in the evening so Sebastian had taken to making the stew himself with the instructions he was given.

Sebastian nodded, moving around him to sit on the couch. He turned to face Adrian though, waiting for a verdict.

"It's good. Even better than mine, actually. It's just a tad bit cold." He grinned in that way of his that made Sebastian's heart flutter, "I told you that you'd be brilliant at it with some practice."

He placed the bowl in the microwave, setting it for a few seconds.

"Oh? I don't think you were that confident about it when I tried to make that shepard's pie or whatever." Sebastian jeered.

Adrian grimaced. "We don't need to mention that one."

Sebastian's face soured. "You got _food poisoning_. You _projectile vomited_."

The microwaved timer beeped. Adrian pulled out the bowl, going over to join Sebastian on the couch.

"It truly is a wonder I still trust you to even be near my food." He teased, nudging his lover's shoulder.

"You must be insane. Or have a serious lack of concern for your life." Sebastian grinned in return.

"Or maybe I just really like you." Adrian smiled, leaning over for a kiss. Sebastian's earlier anger had dissipated by now and he leaned into the kiss, savoring the taste of Adrian's mouth and hoping to communicate his feelings through their mouths.

When he pulled away, looking into those startlingly green eyes that looked at him with so much adoration he only barely resisted jumping his bones. _Later_ , he reminded himself. Now was their time to talk. And they only had so much time for that.

"So, are you still going to Paris?"

Adrian returned to his stew and curled his legs under himself. "Yes, everything's been prepared. Grell's excited and under that stoic expression of his I can tell that Will is looking forward to it as well."

"... Of course, I still wish that you could go with me." He trailed off, looking at Sebastian pleadingly.

"I can't. I told you I already have a job planned that week. It's a new company I'm working with and it would make a bad impression if I bailed on them to sightsee in Paris with you."

Adrian sighed. "Yeah, yeah. You've told me. You're so busy these days. Busier than me when I was your age. It's not fair, I wanted to make love to you in the City of _Love_."

Sebastian smirked. "You can make love to me _here_ and we don't even have to get on a plane, how about that?"

"Mmm, _tempting_." Adrian purred, pressing little kisses on Sebastian's nose and the corner of his mouth. "Let me finish this stew you slaved over first, love."

They fell into a light silence as Adrian ate and Sebastian played around with a lock of his silver hair.

"Vincent's never been, you know?" Adrian said suddenly, shocking Sebastian and causing the hair to fall from his fingers. "Around the same age as me, a man in the fashion industry and he's never been to Paris, France. A pity; that city was built for him. Although, if he ever went I doubt he'd have it in him to come back."

A scowl had made it's way to Sebastian's face. "Why do you do that?" He snapped.

Adrian frowned in confusion and looked over at him. "Do what?"

"Talk about him like… _like that_."

Adrian was silent, staring at Sebastian with the same confused look on his face until something occurred to him- judging by the look on his face.

"Are you… _jealous_ of him, Sebastian?" Sebastian didn't answer but his stony expression didn't change. "You are…!"

Adrian couldn't help the laugh that ripped from his throat, which only made Sebastian's face stonier.

"That's ridiculous! You have no reason to be jealous of him at all!"

"I have no reason to be jealous of someone that you used to fuck?" Sebastian asked, voice laced with venom.

The smile on Adrian's face slipped away when he realized Sebastian was serious.

"Sebastian…" He started but was interrupted by Sebastian's rising irritation.

"I have no reason to be jealous of a man you used to sleep with, that you're extremely cuddly with and that you're still good friends with? That you spend 4 hours talking to when you were supposed to be here with me?"

Adrian was frowning now. "Is it a crime to be friends with someone after a romantic relationship?" He demanded. "Vincent is a great friend of mine and I've known him almost as long as you've been alive, would you have me pretend he doesn't exist and ignore him from now on?"

Sebastian was silent for a moment. "...You talk about him like you're still in love with him. Like he's some great revered figure that you want but can't have."

Adrian sighed, looking away and swallowing deeply."Of course I can't have Vincent. No one can _have_ Vincent." He muttered.

"What? What does that even mean?" Sebastian snarled.

Adrian looked back over at him. "What did he tell you? About us in college?"

"He didn't really say anything I found out most of it from Diedrich."

"Then what did _Diedrich_ say?" Adrian pressed.

"Diedrich said something about the two of you acting friendly in college and then it getting out around the school that you were seeing each other. But then Vincent said that you were _just_ friends. Not dating at all, just friends with benefits basically."

Adrian's face had hardened at that. " _Friends_ back then." He chuckled dryly. "That's funny. No one can have Vincent, Sebastian. I learned that the hard way."

"I'll tell you what really happened so it makes sense to you."

Sebastian scowled and made a move to get up. "I don't want to hear all the intimate details of your relationship with him."

Adrian caught him by the arm, forcing him to stop.

"Just _listen_ , okay?"

* * *

"I still can't believe that _Sapphire Owl_ won the cricket contest!"

"That Phantomhive prefect is crazy, I always see him lying down on the lawn reading a book."

"He might be crazy but he won!"

"He must have cheated. As if a sapphire owl could ever beat a green lion."

"I heard those two prefects made a wager over the competition."

"Oh! There they are, they're walking over there. Seem to be arguing about something."

"That Phantomhive fellow always looks _so_ smug."

"I wonder what the wager was about, I heard it wasn't for money and that that Green House prefect has been following him around ever since."

"What? Is he his fag or something?"

"His _fag_? He can't make another prefect his _fag_ who does he think he is!?"

A sigh came from behind them. "Enough gossiping, don't the four of you have studying to do?"

The four spun around, shocked to see their very own prefect standing behind them.

"O-oh! Crevan! We didn't see you there!" One of them gasped.

He raised a finely arched eyebrow. "And if you had?"

"P-pardon?"

"If you _had_ seen me here, would the outcome have been different?" He asked.

The four looked between each other, startled and confused.

"U-um! Like you said, we have a lot of studying to do."

"We should… we should get going!"

Adrian smiled. "Yes, yes you should."

They nodded vigorously and scurried off, nearly tripping each other in the process.

"They're just underclassmen, you know." His own fag said from behind him. "You probably just made them soil their underpants."

Adrian laughed at that, continuing to walk in the direction of his fellow prefects.

"You're not actually going to go and speak to them are you? Don't. It's bad enough those two are always together. It's not good for houses to be too friendly with each other."

Adrian turned around, regarding his fag for a moment.

"You're dismissed for today." He stated, and continued walking.

"What? But it's only-"

"Dismissed." Adrian repeated. "You also have some studying to do, I'm sure."

He heard a huff from behind him but paid it no mind as he approached the Blue and Green house prefects.

"Good afternoon, gentlemen."

Diedrich stopped his yelling and they both turned to him.

"Good afternoon, Crevan." Diedrich muttered, avoiding eye contact.

Vincent grinned as he turned to him. "Good afternoon."

"Congratulations on your victory, Vincent. It was well fought."

"Your game was well fought too. A shame that Purple house depends on such wild tactics." Vincent had stepped forward, closing the distance between them slightly.

"I'm truly afraid what will happen to us if we were ever to make them angry." Adrian replied, stepping forward slightly as well.

Vincent hummed in amusement, and the two stood intensely gazing at each other for a moment.

"Have you thought about my proposition?" Vincent asked after a long moment.

Adrian smirked. "I have. It would seem there were many wagers placed upon this past cricket tournament." He glanced over to Diedrich for emphasis. The man was staring at them with confusion written plain on his face.

"And it would seem that I'm the winner of both." Vincent smiled, his brown eyes shining with satisfaction.

"And a winner shall receive his prize. Is now a good time?" Adrian asked, smirking amusedly.

"Now?" Vincent laughed. "It's still early in the morning. Too early for that kind of thing. Meet me in the secret room, just after dinner."

"Very well, then." Adrian nodded, and the two stood simply staring at each other until Diedrich cleared his throat pointedly.

Adrian glanced over at him and a smirk was brought to his face seeing the discomfort there.

"Right, well. I'd better follow my own advice and get some studying done myself. Congratulations again, on the fantastic win." He kept his gaze on Diedrich for a another few seconds before looking away.

"Vincent. Diedrich." He stated in farewell before finally taking his leave.

He could already hear Diedrich yelling at Vincent again one he got a few feet away from them.

He chuckled to himself. _Ah, Green house. No tact whatsoever._

* * *

After dinner Adrian found himself waiting in the private hall, for use of prefects only. Originally it was intended for meetings and private studying away from the noise of other students but there were a particular few reasons he was using it now and none of them proper.

He had been waiting for a while, simply staring out of the skylight, watching the clouds flutter by and the twinkling of the distant stars before he heard some commotion at the door.

Vincent walked in soon after, followed by his ever loyal German hound.

"What is _he_ doing here?" The hound asked agitatedly as they walked in.

"Are you deaf? I was talking to him about meeting me here earlier. You were standing right next to us." Vincent asked, the words biting but his tone teasing.

"Y-yes, I heard." Diedrich stumbled. "But…"

Adrian chuckled to himself and sat up to face them. "What? Disappointed that I'm here? Looking to spend some alone time with Vincent?"

Diedrich's face went red as a tomato.

"What!? No! I have to stay around him because I'm his fag! It's inappropriate for those of separate houses to be friendly with one another!"

"Are you always this serious?" Adrian asked, an amused smile on his face and he returned to his cloud watching.

"Believe it or not, he is." Vincent answered, stepping further into the room.

"Oh, I believe it. Germans always do everything too intensely." Adrian wasn't looking but could practically feel the indignation rising from Diedrich.

His voice was stern but measured when he spoke again. "What are we doing here?"

Vincent had made his way over to the center of the room, near where Adrian was lying and set down a satin bag.

" _I_ am here to discuss some business with Crevan. My family has some interest in his."

"Then what am I here for?" Diedrich asked, sounding less annoyed and more confused.

The air moved as Vincent turned. " _You_ are here to stand watch outside the door. Don't let _anyone_ in and don't open the door under any circumstances. I'll come and open it when I'm ready to leave and no sooner."

"But… what if Amethyst comes? He's a prefect, he has the right to enter."

" _No one_ comes in. Ever. For whatever reason. How you get them to go away is up to you. It's what you're here for."

Adrian couldn't see but judging by the silence they seemed to be in some type of staring contest. But Diedrich was an idiot if he thought Vincent would back down.

"Well? What are you waiting for?" Vincent spoke finally. "Go be a good fag and guard the door. It's going to be lights out soon enough and we need to be getting back by then."

Diedrich huffed but there was the sound of clothes shuffling as he walked back out and shut the door behind him.

"I thought he would never leave." Adrian sighed as he sat up once again.

Vincent chuckled. "Well he didn't have to, he certainly could have watched and blocked the door from the inside."

Adrian pushed up off the ground and to his feet, dusting his pants off.

"Watching? Watching what? Us conducting business? _Talking_?" They shared a laugh and Adrian began walking around, running a hand over the bookshelves lining the side of the room.

"I don't really understand you, Phantomhive. I never thought you of all people would be interested in such things."

"I like learning." Vincent stated, opening the bag he had brought with him and setting out blankets on the floor.

"Learning?" Adrian echoed.

Vincent looked over at him, catch his eye.

"Yes, learning. And a part of learning is experience. Can't very well learn things like this from a book."

Adrian found himself smirking. "And _why_ do you want to learn about this?"

"I'm curious. Interested, you could say."

Adrian moved closer, walking up behind Vincent and lowering himself so he could talk into his ear.

"Interested in learning or interested in me?" He whispered, making sure his lips brushed against the shell of his ear.

Vincent turned around slowly, a smirk on his face as well.

" _Both_." He grinned, speaking so closely that Adrian could move forward a millimeter and be kissing him.

They stayed that close for a moment simply looking at each other and each teasing the other until Vincent turned around to continue setting up.

"I've heard that you have a lot of experience with this kind of thing."

Adrian sat down and pursed his lips. "Well, many from my house are… interested as you said. Not for _learning_ purposes, mind you. But simply exploring things that they are not supposed to do. Wanting things for the sake of sin."

"And you? What do you do it for?"

"Preference." Adrian smiled.

"Ah, _preference_."

They were silent for a moment longer until Vincent deemed his preparation complete.

"Have you got everything?" Adrian asked, looking at the items laid out next to the blanket.

"I believe so. Everything you told me to get. Oil, a few condoms, a few towels, lit a few candles so that we can see without the lights on, got a few toys from the boys of your house. Hopefully they've been properly cleaned."

"We can probably save them for next time. We should start slowly so that your _learning_ is every bit in detail as it needs to be."

Vincent's lip curled up into a smirk. "Oh, but I won the wager. I can do whatever I want with you."

Adrian rolled his eyes. "I'm not a betting man. I should have known better than to wager against you. I'm still trying to figure out what trickery you used to beat the Green house."

"Trickery?" Vincent gasped in mock offense. But they looked at each other and he couldn't help but to laugh. "You're smarter than I gave you credit for."

"If I had won," Adrian began, going back to the point. "I would be doing whatever I wanted with _you_. And I would still say to _wait_. You're much more impatient than I ever gave _you_ credit for."

"I am." Vincent agreed, crawling on top of the blankets. "Get your ass over here already, we don't have all night. _Unfortunately_."

"Unfortunately, indeed." Adrian grinned, crawling into the blankets as well.

* * *

They continued like that for weeks, and then months. Meeting every Thursday night, just after dinner.

Adrian was a good teacher and though the first time was a bit awkward, Vincent learned quickly and the second time was less awkward. More fun. And by the third time… he might have been better than Adrian himself.

They were seniors though, and graduating soon. In less than a month they'd be leaving Weston and moving on with their lives.

Adrian was pondering this as he traced a finger around the mole on Vincent's face. It was getting late now, they'd gone twice already but Diedrich had gotten used to knocking a signal to tell them they should leave, usually leaving as soon as he gave it.

"What do you mean _what will I do_?" Vincent asked, turning to face him. He wasn't much of a post-coital cuddler but he had gotten used to giving into Adrian's whims on occasion.

"I'm a Phantomhive," He continued. "My parents expect me to take over the family business, so I'll go back to America and that's what I'll do."

"... Do you want to do that?" Adrian asked.

Vincent quirked up an eyebrow but stayed silent.

"I'll likely go into the fashion business." Adrian continued in his silence. "I've had some recruiters speak to me about modeling for their agencies."

Vincent grinned at him. "You'd make a wonderful model. People would pay money to stare at you, that's enough to be qualified, I'm sure."

"Oh? Would you pay money for me then?"

"I don't need to pay money, I just need to bet against you." Vincent teased, knocking against the other's shoulder playfully.

Adrian laughed sarcastically and rolled his eyes. They plunged into a comfortable silence as Vincent's hand rose to absentmindedly toy with Adrian's hair.

"Your hair has gotten long." He commented airily. Sighing, he retracted and turned to lie on his back.

"I'm a businessman. I was raised a businessman, I'll always be a businessman… But I have no interest in my family's business. Perhaps I'll start one of my own with you."

Adrian turned to lie on his back as well, watching clouds pass above the skylight.

"Me? A model? What kind of business would it be?" He smiled.

"Get your mind out of the gutter." Vincent snapped, though Adrian could tell he was smiling. "A modeling company, maybe. My family is friends with a seamstress. I've seen her work, she's talented- if a bit… strange."

"Hmm. So where do I fit in? In this business of yours?"

" _Ours_." Vincent corrected. "And you'll be a model of course. Along with a few more, I'm sure. I'll have the seamstress design clothes and you'll model them. We'll be rich within a month with that face of yours."

Adrian laughed. "And what about your face, _Mole_? I would pay for it."

"I'm not a model." Vincent snickered. "And fortunately you don't have to pay for it."

Adrian sighed and they lapsed into silence once again.

"... Everyone knows." Vincent spoke sullenly.

"Not everyone." Adrian argued. "Diedrich has no idea, the poor fool."

They shared a laugh.

"Are all Germans that incredibly dense?" Adrian asked in awe.

"I have heard they do _everything_ intensely." Vincent answered.

"There's been talk of expelling us." Adrian continued, as though he didn't hear the response. "All the gossiping little girls in my house have been talking about it. Expelled for _dishonorable conduct_ and _breachment of student code_."

Vincent sighed. "They would be idiots to expel us in our last year. My mother would sue them for libel and win. They know that. Don't worry about it."

Adrian made a noise from the back of his throat but said nothing else.

The knock signalling them to leave came from the door and they both sat up, beginning to pack away their things.

"Even if they try, Diedrich will vouch for us. It's not like anyone's seen us, anyways." Vincent stated. "Oh, but they may have _heard_ us."

Adrian couldn't help but to snicker. "That's why I told you to _wait_ on the toys."

"And miss the way your face screwed up at the end? I'd rather die."

* * *

"So what happened after that?" Sebastian snapped, an uncomfortable feeling settling in his gut now that he has heard from the source just how close Vincent and Adrian really were. It felt like he had been denying it all this time and just now came to terms with its truth.

"Diedrich did have to vouch for us, the school was more serious than Vincent thought about expulsion. Although, he found out the truth right after and it took every bit of persuasion on Vincent's behalf that he not tell the principal immediately."

"And then?" Sebastian pressed, wondering just what the point of this story was.

"Vincent made all sorts of grand promises. We graduated. And then he left. I heard he married some rich girl from an affluent English family and brought her back to the States. I became a model without him and two years later he invited me to the baby shower of his first son, Ciel. I declined." Adrian sighed, shifting his position on the couch. "It took me 7 years to even want to speak to him again, let alone see him. And… here we are."

Sebastian frowned. "I don't understand. When Vincent talked about you it seemed like _you_ were something that he couldn't have."

Adrian shrugged. "Perhaps he can't. Perhaps his family forced him to make a choice and he chose. He hurt _me_ no matter which way he attempts to twist the story. He had a choice and he made it. I was no less of an obedient lap dog than Diedrich was and still is. But I also made _my_ choice. I refused to be led around on a leash wondering when I'll finally be tossed a bone to shut me up. We were _supposed_ to start that company _together_. We were going to conquer the world _together_. Then we graduated and he left me behind without a word."

Sebastian was silent for a moment, thinking about it. "Did you ever consider that maybe he wanted you to follow him?"

Chartreuse eyes narrowed in obvious fury. "I refuse to follow him across the globe like a helpless puppy." He spat. "He already has Diedrich for that. He's been following behind Vincent like a pet desperate for the attention of it's oblivious owner for years. And what has that gotten him? _Absolutely nothing_. To my knowledge, Vincent's never even fluttered an eyelash his way. I will not become such a tragic case as him. _Ever_."

Sebastian sighed, looking away from him and they were quiet for a moment.

Adrian reached over, gently taking his lover's chin in his hand and turning his face towards him.

"I made my choice." He repeated. "And it's not because I can't have him. It's because I don't _want_ him. I want _you_. And I would still want _you_ even if I couldn't have you." Sebastian attempted to pull his face away but Adrian's grasp was firm and he only let go when Sebastian met his eyes.

"I want _you_." He repeated again, gently pressing a kiss to Sebastian's mouth. "I love _you_." He said, pressing another kiss to his mouth, lingering longer this time. It was the first time he had said it. To anyone.

"So you have absolutely nothing to be jealous of." Adrian whispered, moving his up to Sebastian's chin again and running his thumb over his lips. "He can't have me because you already have all of me."

This time it was Sebastian initiating the kiss, always better with action than he was with words.

When they finally retracted from each other moments later, each panting softly; it was Adrian that spoke first.

"So, it would seem I owe you four hours of my time… and that I'm quite finished with my stew." He grinned, pink tongue running over an incisor. "I'd like to make those hours up to you if that's alright. Maybe a few more than that."

Sebastian grinned in response, swinging a leg over Adrian's and settling himself in his lap.

"I'd say it would be fair to double it." He smirked, pulling his shirt off and over his head. "But I might not be able to walk tomorrow."

Adrian grinned up at him, green eyes shining with delight. Alabaster hands pulled at Sebastian's waist, pressing him closer. "Do you have to go anywhere tomorrow?"

"... _No._ "

White teeth glinted off the dim lighting. " **Then double it is**."

* * *

Sorry this took so long to get out! It just occurred to me that it's been almost two months. I've also been watching A LOT of Game of Thrones so apologies if the accents are more traditional than they should be. This chapter should have been longer but I (just barely) resisted putting smut in it. Next chapter ;)


	13. Extra 3

**Extra 3/3: It's Sebastian and Adrian's one year anniversary**

* * *

"I'm so full!" Sebastian exclaimed tiredly, as he practically collapsed onto the couch.

"I told you not to order another steak." Adrian chided humorously, stripping out of his coat and draping it on the back of the couch.

The two had gone out for dinner at an upscale restaurant to celebrate their one year anniversary. They would have liked to have spent the whole day together but Sebastian had a quick photoshoot in the morning and Adrian had slept well into the afternoon.

"That steak was amazing. I should have ordered three more and took them home."

Adrian smirked and leaned over the couch to peck Sebastian's forehead.

"I have no idea where you're putting all that food. Yet another untold mystery of the world."

Sebastian reached up to pull his boyfriend down and Adrian allowed him to, wordlessly pressing a kiss to his lips this time.

"I'm convinced that I have a second stomach."

Adrian laughed and retracted from him, walking into Sebastian's kitchen. He opened the refrigerator and pulled out the champagne that he had set to chill. He pulled two glasses from a cabinet, popped the cork on the wine, and poured enough for both of them.

"Happy Anniversary, love." Adrian announced as he handed Sebastian a glass. They clinked them together, each taking a sip, before Sebastian groaned again.

"I'm too full…!"

Adrian snickered at him.

"We don't really have to drink all of this." He said, downing the contents of his glass in one go. He placed his cup on the coffee table and carefully took the glass out of Sebastian's hand, downing his as well.

"I'd much rather just skip to the main event. I think I've had an erection all god damn day." Sebastian eyes widened in surprise but Adrian barely even noticed as he climbed onto him, pushing Sebastian down into the couch.

"Wait, hold on a sec-!" Sebastian cried but Adrian's mouth was already on his.

"Wait-!" He cried again, pushing against Adrian's chest.

"What? What is it?" The silver haired man asked frustratedly.

"I don't have any condoms on me. There's some in the-" He trailed off when he saw the look on Adrian's face.

"You don't have one on you either?" he asked instead, although he was already sure of the answer.

Sebastian sighed. "Fine."

"If you really don't want me to finish inside of you, I could go in your mouth instead?" Adrian suggested, grinning like the chesire cat.

Sebastian rolled his eyes, but thought it over for a moment. "No, it's fine." If it turned him on half as much as did when Adrian came inside the condom then whatever mess and embarrassment would be worth it.

"Oh? Getting daring are we?" Adrian jested, reaching down between them to rub his palm against the rising tent in Sebastian's pants. "That's good. I plan to follow through on a promise I made to you tonight."

Sebastian had no idea what he was talking about. "What promise?"

Adrian grinned again and Sebastian decided that the man was _way_ too impish to have any good intentions for the night.

"When we had sex for the first time, I noticed that you had amazing stamina here." He squeezed at Sebastian's erection for emphasis. "And I told you that I was going to test out just how _many_ times you could go."

Sebastian breathed out a gasp as Adrian freed his cock, exposing it to the chilly air of the room.

"Well, that said, I don't want to drug you without you realizing it so I suppose I should tell you that the champagne I bought is laced with aphrodisiac. And you… definitely didn't drink enough of it. In hindsight perhaps I shouldn't have downed both of our glasses so quickly."

Sebastian looked up at Adrian in complete shock, the older man's were looking particularly glassy now that he was thinking about it but…

"Aphrodisiac really?! Are you serious!? How much of that did you just drink!?" He demanded.

"Hm…" Adrian hummed inquisitively. "Enough that if I don't orgasm in the next five minutes I may need to be taken to a hospital."

"What!?" Sebastian yelped, but Adrian was already on him once again, dragging his boxers and pants down his legs and discarding them somewhere in the room.

Adrian briefly licked the palm of his hand and then brought it back to Sebastian's hard cock, rubbing the dampened fist up and down the length at a consistent pace.

"W-wait, what about you?" Sebastian managed to gasp out. "Don't you need to-" His sentence was lost as Adrian's hand ducked down to grasp and squeeze at his balls.

His lover chuckled. "Not even your mouth turns me on more than the way your face screws up in pure bliss when you come. It's quite cute, really."

Sebastian glared but could do nothing to hide the blood rushing up to his face.

Adrian increased the pace of his hand, causing a quiet concession of wet slapping sounds to echo loudly in the room. Sebastian moaned and despite what Adrian had said, snaked his hand down between them to handle the older man's cock. He was immediately alarmed at how hot the skin felt but chose to not comment on it.

They continued like that for a while, Adrian practically panting into Sebastian's mouth as he was breathing too heavily to even bother with kissing. Sebastian convulsed as he came, jerkily thrusting upwards until he was spent, the silver haired man let out a particularly throaty grunt soon after and spilled onto both of their hands.

The older man practically collapsed onto Sebastian, resting his head on his lovers chest as they both lay panting and trying to catch their breath.

"...Adrian." Sebastian said after a few moments had passed.

"Hmm?"

"You're still hard." The offending appendage was poking into Sebastian's thigh. He had been expecting it to soften after a few minutes had passed but it hadn't at all.

Unsurprisingly, Adrian laughed sending warm breath and vibrations all across Sebastian's chest. "Well, I'm an old man. You're the one with all the stamina. How else am I meant to keep up with you?"

"You're not an old man." Sebastian argued, reaching up to move some silver strands behind an ear.

Adrian pressed a kiss to his lips and retracted with a smirk. "I'm old enough to be your father. That makes me an old man. Maybe I should have you call me _daddy_? How about it?"

Sebastian scowled. "Fuck off. As if I'm ever gonna do that."

Adrian laughed but relented, "Alright, alright. Hurry up and turn over my hand is getting dry."

Sebastian obeyed, turning over so that his stomach was against the couch and his softening dick was pressed into it.

And then he realized what Adrian had just said. "Wait your hand is getting-" He stopped speaking immediately as he felt a finger slicked with an oddly warm substance slide across his hole.

"Unfortunately I don't have any lube on me either at the moment." Adrian snickered, slathering more of the substance around Sebastian's entrance. "Although this is _much_ sexier than lube."

Sebastian's face was hot with embarrassment once again and as much as he wanted to argue just the thought of Adrian's semen being used to open him up was causing a renewed heat in his body.

He sighed in pleasure as a finger gently slid inside of him, relishing in the way Adrian was pressing wet kisses down the curve of his ass.

Then he cried out in surprise.

A wet appendage was licking over his entrance, lapping at the tender flesh. They had done this before and Sebastian had to swallow down every bit of pride he had to allow Adrian to lick him there but it had been so, _so_ worth it. He had come without a touch to his cock and he likely would again.

Sebastian moaned as he ground his hardness against the fabric of the couch -it would definitely need to be cleaned tomorrow- in an effort to get some much needed friction.

Adrian pulled out the finger within him, quickly thrusting in a few times with two before he withdrew his hand completely.

"Lift your hips up for me." He instructed as he quickly climbed out of his clothes.

Sebastian did as he was told.

Adrian playfully slapped his lover's ass causing Sebastian to jolt forward and then he was spreading the cheeks open and his tongue was toying with that sensitive flesh again.

" _Fuck_ …" Sebastian sighed, arching his spine and pushing back into that sinful mouth.

He could feel Adrian smirk and seconds later felt the prodding of that wet appendage against the ring of muscle and then the overwhelming mix of sensations that followed.

"Oh _shit_ …" Sebastian cursed, letting his head drop as he fisted his hands into the cushions.

The appendage darted in and out of him, drawing moans and grunts with every lick.

Suddenly, something hot splashed against Sebastian's foot as well as the back of his thighs. Adrian retracted with a gasp, hot breath blowing against the skin of Sebastian's ass.

Sebastian, confused, turned around. "Did you just come again?" He asked, fully aware that Adrian's cock was still completely hard and standing at attention.

"...Yes, I did."

Sebastian shook his head, turning around again. "You need to go to the hospital."

"Well, all of the viagra commercials say if you have an erection lasting more than 5 hours then you should be worried." Adrian responded, replacing his tongue with his fingers.

"You didn't take viagra!" Sebastian cried in annoyance.

"Exactly." Adrian agreed.

Sebastian just rolled his eyes. "Do you mind if I lay on my back? My arms are getting tired."

"Go ahead." Adrian said, removing his fingers for a moment and absently stroked his cock as he waited for his lover to get comfortable.

Sebastian's eyes were on it as he laid down. Adrian, of course, noticed this.

"I thought you said you were full," He said, nearly purring as he smirked down at Sebastian. "But you look awfully hungry to me."

"Shut up." Sebastian snapped. "Just get over here."

Adrian obliged with a laugh, "Why are you still wearing a shirt?" he asked as he moved to straddle Sebastian's waist.

Sebastian hadn't even realized he still had it on but quickly peeled it off. When he looked at his boyfriend again he realized that the man was straddling his waist with his back to him.

"We're trying new things tonight." The silver haired man announced, placing his feet on the couch right behind Sebastian's head and working his way backwards until his cock was hanging in front of Sebastian's face.

"Tap on my leg if it's too much. I'd like to choke you not kill you, there's a difference."

Sebastian was too stunned to come up with an appropriate response, and before he could even say anything Adrian's mouth was already on his cock- coaxing a low and sinuous moan to come spilling out of his mouth.

He carefully reached up to grab the swinging appendage and slowly stroked it as he tried to talk himself into doing this. He took a deep breath and carefully pulled downwards, allowing Adrian to slowly lower his hips until his length was being enveloped in Sebastian's warm mouth.

Sebastian lapped at the tip, sucking gently and Adrian rolled his hips gently, giving him a taste of what was to come. He moaned as Adrian began bobbing his head on his cock and in response Adrian rolled his hips a little harder pushing himself into Sebastian's mouth.

After the initial panic over the action subsided, Sebastian felt a little better about his ability to do this as Adrian had a limited range of movement thanks to the position and couldn't fuck himself way down into Sebastian's throat as he had initially feared.

Feeling comforted by that Sebastian brought his hand up and squeezed Adrian's leg lightly to let him know it was okay to continue.

Sebastian focused on relaxing and keeping the panic out of his head as Adrian lowered his hips further, pressing his cock further down Sebastian's throat.

Sebastian tightened his grip on Adrian's leg, using it as a point of focus to ignore the rapid spasming of his throat. He gagged slightly and Adrian stilled above him but he rubbed his hand across Adrian's leg to let him know he was still okay.

They continued like that for a while until Sebastian had relaxed enough and was able to remember himself and suck and move his tongue around the cock in his throat rather than just leaving Adrian to thrust into his mouth.

His lover, who had been slowing giving attention to Sebastian's cock in little licks and light teeth scrapes in an attempt to not overwhelm him began sucking him off in earnest- causing Sebastian to moan around his length.

They'd never done a position like this before and Sebastian found the slightly dominating way that Adrian used and fucked his mouth much more of a turn on than he would ever admit. It was hard to focus between the attention to his cock, the turn on, and keeping his gag reflex in check.

Therefore, it wasn't really a surprise that drool was leaking down the sides of his mouth and pooling on the couch under him and even less of a surprise when he suddenly jerked, losing his body in a series of convulsive movements, accidentally taking his boyfriend's length way further into his throat than he thought was possible and came- black spots flashing across his vision.

Adrian apparently shared the sentiment and orgasmed as well, shooting semen directly down Sebastian's throat.

The latter began choking and sputtering immediately, leaning off the side of the couch to clear his airway and allowing himself to breathe again. Adrian moved until he was leaning against the arm of the couch, using one hand to brush his hair out of his face and the other to slowly stroke up and down the still impossibly hard appendage between his legs.

"Oh, bloody fucking hell." He groaned, leaning his head back in bliss.

His partner, who had finally stopped hacking, drew himself into a sitting position on the couch, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

"You-" Sebastian tried, voice coming out far more raw than he was intending. He coughed and cleared his throat. "You need to go to the hospital." He repeated.

Chartreuse eyes were blazing when they focused on him, " _You_ need to let me fuck your mouth _properly_ in the future. _That_ … was better than your face when you orgasm, love. Much better." He purred, crawling over to his boyfriend and engaging in a kiss, poking his tongue into Sebastian's mouth and toying around with the taste of one another.

When he pulled away they were both panting. Sebastian wasn't sure if Adrian was expecting a response to what he just said but he said nothing regardless. He'd be embarrassed for the rest of his life if he ever admitted how much even the thought of that turned him on.

"But later," Adrian was saying. "Right now I want the main event." And then he was nipping at Sebastian's ear and leaving hickies down the side of his neck. He was beginning to think Adrian was the one with all of the stamina.

Sebastian groaned. "If I come again I might seriously pass out. You are way too much for me right now."

Adrian grinned impishly at him and Sebastian was instantly scared of what would come out of his mouth next.

Silver hair draped delicately over Sebastian's naked skin as Adrian leaned into his ear once again.

"What if… I let you fuck me tonight?"

Sebastian's mouth all but dropped open.

"What?" He sputtered, completely taken aback. "Are you serious?"

"Completely." Adrian grinned. "I'm feeling hornier than a teenage boy right now and I'm not sure that your ass, as lovely as it is dear, can sate me."

Sebastian narrowed his eyes at that. "Are you going to let me just because you took some weird laced champagne and are feeling hornier than usual?"

Adrian peppered kisses across his nose, cheeks, and lips. "Well that and I love you. I'd like for you to stop having weird thoughts about Vincent and I."

Sebastian grimaced.

"Sorry, sorry." Adrian quickly apologized. "I know you hate it when I bring him up while we're being intimate. But the point had to be made."

The older man kissed him then and Sebastian reluctantly responded to it, trying to keep up the facade of being upset if only to mask how happy he was to be hearing that from Adrian finally.

"So, how about it? Unless you really are going to insist I go the hospital with a massive erection. I'm scared someone might jump me." Sebastian rolled his eyes.

"Fine. But if you're still hard in the next hour I'm calling an ambulance." Adrian laughed and kissed him again.

"Deal. Now then, unfortunately I am going to need some type of real lubrication. It has been _quite_ a while. Where is the bottle again?"

Sebastian huffed and stood from the couch. His legs felt wobbly and he seriously wondered if his body was going to be able to handle another orgasm. Nevertheless, he walked on unsteady legs into his bedroom, reaching into his bedside drawer for lube and a few condoms just in case.

When he returned Adrian was spread out along the couch, languidly stroking his cock with his eyes closed. A soft sigh escaped his lips and Sebastian had to remind himself that he was in the middle of doing something. Once again he wondered why didn't own a camera to capture the sheer fucking beauty that was Adrian Crevan.

He sat down on the opposite end of the couch uncapping the lube and squirted some out on his hand. Adrian had yet to open his eyes again so Sebastian took the opportunity to replace the man's hand with his own. Smearing lubrication down his length.

Adrian opened his eyes then smiling up at Sebastian as a low moan ripped from his throat.

"Shit." He swore, his eyes darted over to the coffee table where Sebastian had sat the lube and condoms. "You don't need to use condoms with me if you don't want to. I don't mind either way."

Sebastian tried not to interpret that as meaning Vincent had fucked him without a condom before and he had enjoyed it, and instead simply nodded before lowering himself to capture Adrian's lips in a kiss.

As the kiss became more heated, Sebastian increased the pace of his strokes until Adrian was breathing heavily into his mouth.

"Alright, alright." He gasped. He pushed Sebastian's hand off of him and turned until the upper half of his body was leaning against the arm of the couch and his ass was sticking up in the air.

Sebastian was breathless for a second, nervousness setting in as he realized what exactly was about to happen.

Adrian shook his hips in anticipation, shaking him out of his daze.

Sebastian reached for the lube once again and after a moment of hesitation decided to forego the condom. It was difficult to open the lube bottle with his hand being as slick as it was and once he finally popped the lid he set it back on the table without closing it.

Carefully he spread the cheeks of Adrian's ass exposing the ring of pink flesh within. He ran a slick finger across it, making Adrian flinch at the cold touch. He applied a bit more pressure, rubbing over the area with his pointer and middle finger pressing harder with his knuckles.

Adrian writhed impatiently. "Now is not the time for teasing, Sebastian." He chided.

Sebastian snickered but stopped his ministrations, applying pressure directly into the ring of muscle until the tip of his finger slipped inside. Adrian gasped softly and pushed back against the digit.

"Hurry the fuck up." Adrian hissed, then deciding his tone was too sharp added, "I won't break love, I promise."

Sebastian sighed. It was his first time doing this and he honestly wanted to just take his time but guessed if Adrian ever let him do this again then he would take his time then.

He pushed his middle finger inside, pressing in even as Adrian's body was pushing him out. He knew Adrian would tell him if he was hurting him but Sebastian's main concern was that the man was in such a rush he would take the pain if it meant getting what he wanted faster.

Sebastian pushed his fingers deeper into Adrian until he could no longer see the second knuckle. The older man pushed against his fingers and Sebastian retracted his fingers before plunging them back in. If it was a fuck Adrian wanted then it was a fuck he would get.

In his head Sebastian thought of it like fingering a girl, and really it wasn't that much different, he could work with that.

He laid a hand on Adrian's back, pressing him down and balancing himself. He scissored the two fingers inside briefly and before Adrian could complain he began quickly fucking the fingers into him creating an obscene slapping noise in the otherwise quiet room.

Adrian groaned out loud, arching his back into the touch.

Sebastian slipped in a third finger, twisting the digits as he thrusted them into the writhing body beneath him. Then he was taking them out and reaching for the lube again. Adrian whined with need and his hand was already back on his cock in the absence of Sebastian's fingers.

He vaguely wondered if Adrian had orgasmed again but he also didn't really want to know the answer. That would be the fourth time tonight and he hadn't even fucked him yet.

So, pushing that thought out of his mind, he lined his cock up and began pressing inside. Adrian groaned, gutturally, nearly going limp on the couch.

Sebastian stilled immediately. "Are you okay?" asked, growing concerned.

"I'm… fine." He answered after a long pause.

"Am I hurting you?" Sebastian pressed, about to remove himself.

Adrian shot a hand behind him, grabbing the back of Sebastian's thigh and pulling it towards him. "No. You're doing… great. Just…"

Sebastian was completely bewildered until he realized what had just happened.

Adrian came. _Again_.

"I swear if you still have a hard-on after all of this I'm taking you to the hospital." He snapped, pressing himself further into his boyfriend's body.

The man simply breathed out a laugh in response.

Sebastian continued to press into the tight ring of muscle until he was fully seated. When he was, they both groaned deeply. If Sebastian wasn't careful he could come just from the _tightness_ surrounding his length.

He breathed out a dangerously shaky breath and pulled out, slamming himself back in.

Adrian's back arched and he let out a moan that was bordering on being a wail.

Sebastian repeated the motion several times until he fell into a rhythm and once again a truly filthy slapping sound resounded in the room as his hips slammed against the skin of Adrian's ass.

There was one thing that Sebastian noticed immediately about Adrian taking this position.

He was _loud._

The man was moaning and muttering things like "fuck me", "oh _fuck,_ and " _right there_ " that would have even made Sebastian blush if he hadn't been so otherwise distracted. Whenever Sebastian was on the receiving end, Adrian was quiet vocally but enjoyed dirty talk way more than he should have.

But this… this was _unexpected_.

And it probably turned Sebastian on more than it should have. He would probably blame it on the little bit of laced wine he had ingested but he practically lost all sense of reason as he fucked into Adrian like a dog in heat.

Unsurprisingly, his orgasm hit him quickly, the waves of pleasure rolling over Sebastian and bringing him to a state right in between conscious and unconscious.

* * *

When Sebastian regained his senses enough to take in his surroundings he realized his entire body weight was on top of Adrian who was currently just as barely conscious as he was.

"You alright?" He mumbled, bringing his face up to his lovers and pressing a few kisses to his temple.

Adrian sleepily turned his head and caught those lips in a lazy kiss.

"Mm. Yeah. Erection finally went down as well. No hospital visit." He smiled.

"Well, that's good." Sebastian agreed, kissing him again.

"That was a very thorough fucking, I didn't realize you had it in you." Adrian grinned, about to turn over until they both realized they were still connected.

Sebastian's face reddened and he slowly retracted his softening and over-sensitive cock from Adrian's ass.

And then his semen came spilling out after it.

Sebastian was learning a whole lot about his turn-ons today.

Adrian groaned at the sudden loss of pressure, but finally turned over. As he looked Sebastian in the face he seemed to see something and grinned in that same way he had earlier.

He brought his hand to his mouth, wetting his fingers with his saliva, then reached down to his ass. Sebastian watched in awe as he inserted two fingers into himself, pumping them in and out slowly. And he could feel the twitch of his cock as those fingers came out, covered in his semen, and Adrian stuck them directly into his mouth, licking them clean.

Then the motherfucker _winked_.

Sebastian scowled. "If I get hard again, I might die. Stop it."

"You were the one who didn't want to use a condom. Deal with the consequences." Adrian jested, laughing.

"In any event," Sebastian began, laying down on Adrian's chest. "Please don't drink shit laced with aphrodisiac again."

"Hmm, I can't promise that. Tonight was quite fun. I think I had… at least six orgasms? How about you?"

"What?! How did you… that many times?! When!?" Sebastian felt the rumble of laughter through Adrian's ribcage. "I had...three, I think."

"Ah, well. You could probably go one more." Sebastian scoffed and Adrian laughed again. "But in the future I will remind myself that's it's a terrible idea to drink two glasses back to back like that."

Sebastian frowned. "No, seriously. If you do this again I'm taking you to the hospital. I know you said I had a lot of stamina but I feel like I've been hit with a truck and I can only imagine how terrible you feel."

Adrian chuckled. "I don't feel anything right now. I think my body gave up on me. I'll likely feel it in the morning."

"I'm taking you to the hospital." Sebastian warned.

Adrian sighed and held him closer. "Happy anniversary, love."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm tired." Sebastian sighed, snuggling into him like he was a pillow.

"I love you." Adrian added cheerfully, jostling Sebastian around a bit just to annoy him.

"I love you, too." Sebastian mumbled, already half asleep.

"I'm also going to have to buy you a new couch."

* * *

 **Hey everyone! I was actually going to do a 4th extra chapter about deleted/forgotten scenes literally the only thing I could think of was Sebastian's date with Grell but I didn't want to dedicate an entire extra just for that so I think I'm gonna leave this story here. It feels complete and I feel done with it. This was definitely a journey and I tried a lot of new things and I feel good about it. So, thank you all for joining me! I don't know what I'll coming out with next so stay tuned.**

 **-Robyn**


End file.
